Wish list
by Aeria
Summary: Epilogue!! This is it! :( :( :( Please R and R. Vaughn and Sydney get together, then break up then Jack plays matchmaker and, well, that's where we left off! Have fun, I'm almost done.
1. Meet and Greet

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Well, I'm not notorious for finishing fics, but reviews will get me moving. I really like them whether they are mean or nice just as long as I know that someone is reading this. It will have a happy ending, I promise. Um, also I live in Australia so if I make mistakes or spell mom mum (which I won't on my end of year English exam I spelt mom mom and my teacher just thought it was great.) don't get made. Also I don't think I'll try to incorporate any of the real show's plot because it's too hard to keep up. Also anyone wanna e-mail me, just do it, I don't mind, I'd actually love for you to, makes me feel wanted. Donna__rose@hotmail.com Anyways, R and R please and enjoy.  
  
Chapter One The floor was hidden beneath a thick film of dust. Everything in the room was covered in the brown matter bar the few distinct footmarks on the ground and the cleaned off surfaces of two of the out of place plastic chairs. The warehouse looked like a weird type of prison; with its wire fences and sparse furnishings, its dimly lit empty space and un-wanted bits and pieces, and it was a prison to Sydney. It was the only place where she was allowed, every where else it wasn't Sydney, it was some weird woman with a weird name and a weird personality. It wasn't Sydney.  
  
At home she wasn't Sydney, she was a well scripted character with false ideas and false emotions, the real feelings only slipping out in grief and sadness, she would never show a happiness that was really hers. Sure she might know she should be happy for Francie when she decided to open a restaurant and happy for Will when he announced something good. But she couldn't be really happy, she couldn't say what she felt in case the mask slipped off and she was forced to face her friends with the truth. She'd always thought that if she had the chance she would tell them.  
  
Even after her fiancée was killed for that very reason, Sydney refused to realise that they could never know who she truly was. Then Will had found out and as she looked back on the events of the last few months she realised that no one should ever have been introduced to Sydney Bristow, Double Agent.  
  
Will hadn't blamed her, but he had never gotten the whole story either, she had never been able to just sit down and talk to him about it as though it really was her life. It was always, "SD-6 is... " or "The CIA..." or "The Double Agents...". Never just "I...". She wished she could, but she knew that it would be too hard, too complicated. Too risky.  
  
So she sat there in the dark on the chair she always took with her feet up on the chair across where Vaughn usually sat and shut her eyes. No meeting had been called, no mission, or counter mission, needed to be discussed, no one knew she was here. She was leaving home more and more often in search of comfort here, in this dull and lonely place. Sydney knew it was stupid, that she shouldn't come here unless she was told to, but she needed it desperately.  
  
She had come the night before and three days before that, just sitting for hours with her eyes tightly shut and her mind wandering over conversations that she wished she was having. Usually with Vaughn, ranging from the weather to the latest from Marshall, but sometimes with Will or Francie and sometimes with her father Jack.  
  
She wanted Francie to meet Vaughn, she was positive that they would instantly take a liking to each other, Vaughn to Francie's bright manner and Francie at first to Vaughn's good looks. 'Not that I've noticed,' Sydney was quick to remind herself. She played the scene out in her head, the whole normal confrontation. She would take Vaughn round to her house and they'd be inside getting a cup of coffee.  
  
"Syd, you mind if I borrow that top you bought the other day, the red one with the low back." Francie's voice echoed down from the bathroom. "I'm going out tonight with the guy from work, not a great looker but hey, I'll deal."  
  
Francie rounded the corner with the clingy top on, a hand behind her head as she fumbled with the cords that she needed to get a knot into. With out looking up she called, "Syd, you wanna give me a hand?"  
  
Sydney smiled at Vaughn as he leaned against the counter guessing the woman in front of him to be Francie and quite intrigued at her behaviour. Slowly, Syd walked around and out of the kitchen, taking the cords from Francie she tied them securely in a double knotted bow and let go. The material fell gently over her room-mates body as Francie smoothed it out finally, throwing her hair out of her eyes, she looked up.  
  
She caught sight of Vaughn's toned physique hunched over the cream coloured bench, coffee cup grasped in his hands and a well established smile upon his face she realised, as her eyes moved upwards to his face. She looked to Sydney, curiosity and amusement mixed with in her glance before looking back to Vaughn.  
  
Sydney's was pulled from the reverie as soft footfall alerted her to company in the warehouse. Checking her watch quickly she noticed the time was just ticking over nine pm. A shard of moonlight slipped through the window, illuminating specs of dust and a slim metal bar that ran just above where Sydney sat. Standing with the quiet of a prowling cat, she listened as the near silent shuffling of a pair of shoes neared. Looking around she saw no other escape, she climbed onto the chair and propelled herself with one mighty jump up onto the bar. She flipped herself up to sit on top with on leg looped over and around.  
  
The metal was cold and the bar very smooth and slim and she fought not to let squeals out from under her palms as her hands fought to gain steady balance. Below her a familiar smell wafted up to her as a tall man in a full length coat and hat turned into the small cage where CIA meetings were held.  
  
His collar was upturned against the strong wind outside and his face obscured, the familiar stance and smell caused Sydney to concentrate too hard on trying to remember the familiarities and thus, indecently lose her grip on the now sweaty bar and fall almost head first to the ground. She recovered in time to land on her shoulder and roll up into a squat from which she proceeded to whip her foot around catching the off-guard intruder in the back of the thigh. He went crashing to the ground, a small yelp escaping his lips. Seconds later green eyes clashed with brown as Sydney picked herself up onto her knees only to meet the business end of a gun.  
  
Not long after both guns dropped as the pair recognised each other. "Vaughn?" Sydney asked in question, she was both surprised and embarrassed at her handler's sudden appearance. She stood up trying to dust the dirt from the tank top and light denim shorts she was wearing, "What are you doing here?"  
  
He straightened the black shirt he was wearing and grasped Sydney's hand as she offered to help him up. "I could ask you the same thing," he said dodging the question and smiling as he saw his agent blush and look at the ground. "I was just coming in to make sure the place was fine. We have a meeting tomorrow and I wanted to make sure that the warehouse hadn't been bugged."  
  
Sydney looked at him, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. Eventually she nodded and sat down in her usual chair. "Sorry about beating you up, I didn't know it was you."  
  
Vaughn smiled at her, no sign of anger in his eyes. "I like that kick thing you used, very nice." He looked at her, taking in the slightly dusty clothing and dirty face. Noting a graze on the side of her arm he reached, unthinkingly, into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a navy blue handkerchief. Sitting down on the chair, he leaned over and gently wiped the blood from the wound. "You should wash it, it might get infected." He continued to carefully wipe at the wound, hands gentle on her skin and the smooth material hardly even touching her.  
  
Eventually he wrapped the handkerchief around her arm and waiting, still staring, intrigued, at her arm, for some kind of response. After a few moments' uncomfortable silence, he whispered, "All better." There was still no answer and he dared to look up, wondering what he had done wrong.  
  
Sydney was sitting back in the chair, her right arm dangling useless at her side, her eyebrows knitted in concentration as she stared, a shocked look about her features, at where her handler's hand still held her arm. Realising his mistake Vaughn unceremoniously allowed Sydney's hand to drop down into her lap. Snapping out of her daze, Sydney spoke, "Thank," her voice came out in a rasp, she coughed and continued, "Thank you. But its fine, I've had a lot worse."  
  
Vaughn nodded in agreement and moved his chair back half a meter, trying to relieve the stress that was hanging silently in the air around them. "So, why were you here?"  
  
Sydney suddenly wished she was invisible; she silently recalled what she had been thinking about and felt her cheeks flush red again and her palms become slippery with sweat. "I was just thinking."  
  
Vaughn involuntarily felt a large grin grace his lips, his muscles aching as he strained not to crack up completely. Sydney just looked at him in confusion, "What?"  
  
"Nothing, it's just that you're the best agent the CIA has and you can't come up with a lie good enough to fool you're severely under qualified handler into believing. I'm sorry but I find that funny." He ducked as she went to hit him playfully. "What were you thinking about?"  
  
"It doesn't matter." Syd looked at the ground, no real idea of why her sudden inability to fool Vaughn had occurred. Noticing her was still waiting for an answer she went on, "No really, it doesn't matter. It's not a matter of national security, no one is in danger and I'm not going to tell you anymore than that."  
  
His forehead creased into the well defined worry lines that were quickly etching themselves further into his head. He stared at her until simultaneously they looked away, Sydney at the oil stain she always watched and Vaughn up at the window that he used to judge the weather out side.  
  
"Why not?" he eventually ventured.  
  
"Why should I?" she countered, glad to see the corner of his mouth twitch up at her comment.  
  
"Because if it isn't anything to do with National Security, it must have something to do with you, and I'm interested in you." He beamed at her until he saw her half playful, half embarrassed look and bothered to think about what he had just said. "Oh no, I didn't mean that, I'm not interested interested in you, I'm interested in you, you're life because you're my agent. It's my job."  
  
Sydney felt a pain deep down in her stomach and her face fell as she listened to his words. Perking up purposely, he stood up to leave. "It doesn't matter what I was thinking about, it makes no difference to you of me, and so, it shouldn't matter to you. I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
"Syd," she was already out of sight, the sound of her sneakers on the ground still echoing through the warehouse. "It does matter damn it." Vaughn slumped back in the chair before getting up to leave, ready to head home for another night in front of the TV with Donovan. 


	2. Walking Donovan

Chapter 2  
  
Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Well, I'm not notorious for finishing fics, but reviews will get me moving. I really like them whether they are mean or nice just as long as I know that someone is reading this. It will have a happy ending, I promise. Um, also I live in Australia so if I make mistakes or spell mom mum (which I won't because on my end of year English exam I spelt mom mom and my teacher just thought it was great.) don't get mad. Also I don't think I'll try to incorporate any of the real show's plot because it's too hard to keep up. Also anyone wanna e-mail me, just do it, I don't mind, I'd actually love for you to, makes me feel wanted. Donna__rose@hotmail.com Anyways, R and R please and enjoy.  
  
Vaughn's legs were spread wide and he was sitting right back in his favourite comfy chair. The television was on, the pictures and muffled sounds of some black and white movie from years before he was even born appearing on the screen. A ceramic bowl of half finished spaghetti balanced on his right knee as he sank even lower into a more comfortable position.  
  
The spaghetti was possibly off, he'd made it a couple of nights ago for him and his mom and left the uneaten majority in the fridge. Vaughn only ever got pizza for take out and he'd realised that buying a whole pizza was stupid considering he was all by himself so he had chosen the weird smelling left-overs. 'Dumb move' he'd decided after having eaten about seven mouthfuls. He'd driven home too fast and stalked into his house half in a rage. The neatness just caused him to become even more upset. It was so unlike him, every room was spotless except for his own bedroom and it wasn't him.  
  
Vaughn, being quite strong, had grabbed the television, ripping the cords out of the wall by accident and lugged it up the stairs into his own room. Large double bed, unmade dull copper sheets with a white valance to hide the mass of old magazines and video cassettes that lay beneath. In the corner his favourite chair sat, an ugly green and no match to the rest of the colour coded room but a piece that had grown better with age and was now in it's prime; a perfect mix of sag and taunt material. Next to the bed a large wardrobe, filled with shoes and clothing, his work suits on hangers, his jeans, tracksuit pants and shirts unfolded in a heap. Outside the wardrobe a small pile of the past few days' laundry clogged the polished floor boards and on the opposing wall a huge full length window gave a view into the secret-like garden his old neighbour kept so perfect. A mirror, desk and lamp completed the bedroom along with paper, pens, ties and underwear strewn everywhere. The room clearly reflected who he really was, at the moment, a mess.  
  
And now he was sadly sitting by himself in his chair watching the television at a couple of minutes past two am. He flicked a few more times before switching the off button and sitting up. He flexed his back muscles, almost spilling the bowl of red meet sauce and white thick strings. Rolling his neck he placed the bowl on his bed and stood up, characteristically he breathed deeply through his nose and stretched, almost hitting the ceiling with the tips of his fingers.  
  
Donovan, a small stout dog with hardly any legs, stood obediently beside him. Vaughn looked down at the dog before turning the light out and walking down the stairs into the kitchen where he found the dog's blue leash. He glanced up at the clock and shook his head as he noticed just how late it was. "Too late for a couple of old men to go walking?" In response of perhaps because the dog had noticed the leash, Donovan ran for the door, skidding slightly on the floor on the way. He jumped up and scratched at the already well defined claw marks. "I guess not."  
  
Poking his head out the door Vaughn saw that the street truly was empty, dropping the leash he whistled through his teeth and Donovan leapt outside, clearing the four steps with one bound and skiddinh to a stop on the pavement, obediently waiting for his master. "Nice one," Vaughn shoved his hands into his pockets and walked slowly down the steps. He smiled dearly at the canine before allowing the dog to stand and then following him off down the deserted road.  
  
The beginning of the walk consisted of very little, one run in with a ragged looking tabby cat and a speeding car, but nothing worth remembering. Vaughn mostly thought of nothing, or at least he tried to. He gave up trying to think of nothing after about fifteen minutes to be honest and, instead, began thinking about his run in with Syd earlier that night.  
  
He hadn't been there to check up on bugs, hell if a bug had been planted someone would have been notified. He just wanted to smell her. Smell the fresh, feminine, strong, harsh, sweet flavour. Hell, all of those things couldn't be in one whiff. Could they? There was no where else that smelt of Syd. He'd tried the park, out on the dirt hills, at the outdoor café, the pier even at the golfing range, but the fragrance was gone. At the warehouse it lingered. He hoped it would stay forever because god knows what he'd do if it left.  
  
By this time the 'it' he was thinking of probably wasn't Syd's smell, it was probably Syd and he willingly admitted this both to himself and to Donovan; "It's her isn't it?" But he continued to wander, not going in any particular direction, just moving, always walking, looking every time he turned at the street sign and registering the name and the way he turned. Donovan just looked back at him every time he spoke, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, just listening. Vaughn no longer felt angry, just sad and almost lonely.  
  
Sydney wasn't meant to be anything to him so why was she?  
  
He turned again into Rose Street heading in what he believed to be a northerly direction and found himself walking headlong into an early morning sunrise. On either side of the street men in aprons and young girls were setting out café tables and the morning menus. Looking to his silver watch, Vaughn realised it had just ticked over six thirty. He sighed heavily and continued on down the street, admiring the way the people went about their work, curiously looking at the man with his dog before smiling and going back to their setting up.  
  
The sunrise was wondrous; the street faced the perfect direction for the event with the reds and oranges reflecting off every window and metal chair. The sun was almost half up by the time Vaughn had finished watching the colours dancing as he wandered down the street. He continued to walk, slower now wanting to take in everything about this street, it was so different and he secretly wanted a distraction.  
  
It was long and all along it were bakeries, chocolatries, cafes, gift shops and interesting little places. This was a street that he had never heard of and he felt his thoughts drift from Syd to the beauty of the hidden strip shopping centre. He had no idea who would turn up for breakfast but after finding no vacant area he sat down outside a café and watched as the first people turned up for their morning meal.  
  
An old woman with long white wispy hair across the street sat down and ordered when the young girl appeared. Seconds later the brunette reappeared with a light blue plate upon which rested a cream filled croissant and a talk mug of coffee. Calling something inside the young girl, obviously already acquainted with this woman nodded to her before leaving for inside the café. For the next ten minutes, Vaughn carefully watched her, all alone, sipping her coffee but not touching her croissant; her eyes down cast as she thought deeply about something.  
  
Vaughn didn't want him or Syd to grow old like that, but at this rate they would, he wanted to be her friend, but he wasn't allowed and anyway, she deserved a proper relationship, not something with a person who only brought forward memories of disaster and her own mother's treachery. He ordered a black coffee and scrambled eggs on toast when a young, perhaps thirteen year old boy walked out to greet him with an over sized apron and white pad.  
  
Vaughn continued to watch her, the thought of such routine and such loneliness that the woman must suffer scaring him almost. She wore neat clothes, cream coloured full skirt with a blue blouse. She eventually pulled out a green scarf from her bag and tied her hair up against the prevailing wind. It was then that Vaughn's breakfast was placed in front of him and he stopped watching, instead looking with interest at the two bits of warm toast topped with steaming egg. The coffee looked strong; a good thing he decided considering her hadn't slept for over twenty four hours.  
  
He rejected the knife and fork that sat beside the plate instead opting for his large but slim hands. Picking up the toast, careful not to lose too much egg over the side he looked up to where the woman sat. His eyebrows creased as he noticed her watching him intently. He expected her eyes to dart away but they didn't instead flaring a brighter green than they had been moments before. She smirked at him and nodded slightly in recognition. Vaughn just looked down at Donovan to find him asleep and unhelpful.  
  
He took a few bites without looking up but did succumb to temptation when he heard a peal of laughter echo across the street. The woman stood alongside a man, a little younger than her, his hand resting on her arm as she stood to welcome him. Together they sat down, the woman looking across to Vaughn and winking before returning to her meal and friend.  
  
Slightly unsettled, Vaughn quickly finished his meal, paying the young boy and giving a large tip before leaving with Donovan at his heals off in the direction where the sun now hovered above the horizon.  
  
Another half an hours' walking and he was again in a residential area, his sneakers thumping against the ground as he slowly accelerated into a jog and then a run, an upset and fatigued dog following him as he continued, over low fences into school grounds and then on, up and down streets until he was dying of thirst and completely exhausted. Continuing his run, but now at a much slower pace, Vaughn moved on until he found a pay phone.  
  
Inserting the money he had he called a cab and sat down on the grass as he waited for his ride to arrive. By the time it did turn up Donovan was dead to the world and Vaughn was sitting back on his hands staring at the sky: the driver had to honk twice just to get his attention. Pulled from his thoughts, Vaughn stood with a smile and climbed into the cab, hauling his best friend in with him and telling the driver his home address.  
  
The drive was long and this made Vaughn proud of his efforts, next time Weiss claimed he never walked Donovan, he had a great story. Of course he couldn't really use it because it would include giving a reason for why he felt the need to walk around at two in the morning. The cab passed through a few streets, most of no interest to Vaughn before entering a main road and then they were home.  
  
The majority of the trip Vaughn's thoughts were circling, trying to find the right answer and by the time he was home, he had his answer and was through the door before he remembered Donovan and turned to find him lying still in the cab.  
  
After retrieving him and paying the taxi driver, he ran back inside and grabbed the phone. Dialling the already well known number, Vaughn heard Syd's familiar voice on the other end of the line, slightly slurred with sleep he noticed causing him to realise it was Sunday and only just after eight thirty. "Hello," she said again, her voice becoming slightly confused and cautious.  
  
"Hi, how are you?" he said without thinking. A confused garble of "Ummm" and "Arrrr" and "Can I help you." came back through the line as she undoubtedly recognised his voice uttering something it wasn't supposed to. Chuckling slightly he replied, "Joey's Pizza?"  
  
Then the line just went dead. Vaughn just sighed, realising that she must still be upset about what ever it was that had pissed her off the night before. Still, that didn't mean she should break protocol even though, he thought, he just had. He turned, his emotional high slowly sinking as he realised that he probably couldn't do this. Still, he grabbed his keys, moved the dead weight that was Donovan from in front of the door and made for the dark blue government car he'd recently adopted that lay parked in the drive. 


	3. A Little less conversation: I wish

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Well, I'm not notorious for finishing fics, but reviews will get me moving. I really like them whether they are mean or nice just as long as I know that someone is reading this. It will have a happy ending, I promise. Um, also I live in Australia so if I make mistakes or spell mom mum (which I won't on my end of year English exam I spelt mom mom and my teacher just thought it was great.) don't get made. Also I don't think I'll try to incorporate any of the real show's plot because it's too hard to keep up. Also anyone wanna e-mail me, just do it, I don't mind, I'd actually love for you to, makes me feel wanted. Donna__rose@hotmail.com Anyways, R and R please and enjoy. Well, I have another story going now, please go and read that one. And keep reviewing or I will stop writing.  
  
Chapter three  
  
A Little Less conversation...I wish  
  
She was leaning against the table when he finally arrived. A car pile up on the freeway had caused him to be immobile for a good half hour and despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to contact Syd on her cell phone. It had rung, but she hadn't answered.  
  
Sydney looked up as he jogged in shaking his head before smiling in his own unique kind of goofy way. 'It was an apology and a thank you all in one,' Syd decided. She remained steely, wanting to get whatever it was he'd called her about over.  
  
Vaughn lifted a hand in welcome, taking in the grey suit she was wearing, high necked white shirt underneath, the coat buttons all done up and her hair tied back in a bun. On a Sunday. He began, "I'm sorry I'm late, traffic jam, huge pile up on the free way. I tried to call you." He lifted an eyebrow in question. She shook her head, allowing a small fake smile to grace her lips. Vaughn frowned noticing the change in her behaviour from their normal openness. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you."  
  
"I figured since you called me at nine on my day off that you wanted something." She stood up straight and made to sit down on the chair. Vaughn's hand grazed her arm ever so slightly and Syd could do nothing to stop the sharp intake of air. She flinched away and sat down; pretending the electricity that Vaughn had felt hadn't touched her.  
  
Suddenly embarrassed, he joined her in his seat, moving it forward until their knees were mere centimetres apart. "Syd, I didn't call you here for work," he watched as she crossed her legs and looked at him in confusion.  
  
"What then? Is this pleasure or business." She was trying to put him off what ever it was that he wanted to discuss. It wasn't the time or the place to do anything rash and she was slightly scared of the possibilities. She smirked at him trying to scare him off, desperately wanting to leave.  
  
His forehead creased into their normal lines and he looked up at her, obviously put out. "Sydney, what's the matter." He stood up, worried for some unknown reason. "You look pale."  
  
"I'm fine," flat, like her father. Dull and indifferent, shut down.  
  
He walked over to the cage door and shut it. "Sydney, what's going on? You're different, I need you to tell me, what were you doing here last night?" He sat down again, leaning forward, trying to look her in the eye without forcing her with human contact.  
  
"You're not going to leave me alone until I tell you?" In her heart Sydney wanted to talk about it. So when he shook his head playfully smiling but the wrinkles still in place, she responded: "I was thinking."  
  
"You came all the way out here to think," he wasn't stupid enough to tell her it was against the rules. "What about?" Straight direct, that's what she lov.liked about Vaughn.  
  
"Normality. What it would be like to have all my friends able to meet and talk about everything. Even if it was about me bring a spy, just able to talk about it. I mean, there have been some funny moments." Sydney wanted to kick herself, why did she always find it so easy to forgive this man. She was hopeless at holding a grudge, and now look, she was opening up to him about things she'd promised she would never, ever discuss.  
  
He nodded, sitting back, 'Thank God' because she was getting hot. "You wish you could talk?" he clarified.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"So it's not about being normal, it's about being able to talk." Vaughn was acting like Dr Barnett, analysing her and telling her exactly what he thought she thought. For some reason Sydney found this funny. She nodded and motioned for him to continue his assessment. "No, I'm serious Syd, You like the idea that you're doing good for your country. You like the rush, but you don't like the lies, the lack of truth in your everyday life."  
  
Sydney couldn't stop her mouth from falling open and her eyes from darting down to the oil stain as she searched for an answer. "You know me so well."  
  
"I like to think that I do," Vaughn was completely off track, this wasn't how their meeting was meant to go. But he liked it, at least she wasn't as closed as she had been when he'd first arrived. "I spend most of my time here with you."  
  
"No you don't," she was quick to pull him up on his mistake, "We hardly spend any time together. And most of the time I'm either emotionally distressed or here about a mission."  
  
"I still know you, don't I?" She nodded and so he pressed on, "I think about you. Over analyse you, everything." Then he went on to add, "It's my job to know you, so I take everything I have and work with it."  
  
"Ahhh," silence as she waited. "You have a firmer grasp on what I want than I do. You would make a great shrink." He laughed  
  
"A shrink? Perhaps, but you realise Dr Barnett has to put up with me, you, your dad hell, she would have had to put up with Haladki. That is not a job I particularly want, I'm perfectly happy here." He repositioned himself in his chair, cracking his neck as he moved it to the side. "How's your graze?"  
  
She laughed, the mood lightening, "It's fine, it's really nothing. I had totally forgotten about it until you brought it up just then." 'Liar' she thought. Sydney hadn't forgotten about one of the most amazing experiences in her life. She scoffed slightly, eliciting a raised eyebrow and down-turned mouth form Vaughn. She Sydney Bristow, a woman who had been bombed, shot at with every known gun, attacked in most of the countries a normal person could name, worn tiny dresses while jumping off very tall buildings, broken into giant safes, been shot by her mother and met quite a few very interesting people along the way and she considered gaining a graze and then having it treated by her handler as one of the most amazing experiences in her life.  
  
Vaughn coughed slightly and she snapped back from her thoughts. He smiled, clearly interested, "What were you thinking about then?"  
  
Sydney squinted slightly and bit the inside of her lip, searching the room for a response that wouldn't be an all out lie. The walls, crates and small windows offered no help, "It doesn't matter?"  
  
"Right, stay away from that one. Note to self, Sydney seems to be losing concentration, find out what she was thinking about." He looked up from where he had been playfully writing on his hand with that goofy grin back on his face. "I will eventually find out what you were thinking about. That's a promise."  
  
"Ohhh," Sydney was playful, Vaughn hadn't seen her like this very often and he was savouring the moment. But he was desperate to find out what she had been thinking about, "I doubt I'll ever tell you, and there is no other way to find out."  
  
"Lie detector test?" He wasn't making a suggestion; he wanted to see her reaction. "Remember those?" Obviously she did. Her mouth quirked up as her eyes once again fazed out. Suddenly she came to and hit him playfully, "You're doing that on purpose." He shrugged as her hand rose from the bare skin of his lower arm. She was eyeing him over, carefully and out of the corner of her eye, but she was defiantly slowly becoming aware as to what he was wearing.  
  
Jeans, tight ones, too tight, it should have been considered a crime. Sydney stopped at her thoughts before realising that he wouldn't be able to hear her anyway. A shirt. I've never seen him in a shirt. Never seen his arms except for in France. His shirt was green, deep, deep green, like the colour that reflects off rocks in a deep rock pool, like his eyes. "You're not wearing a suit."  
  
"No, it's Sunday." It was a question, he was asking her about her choice of clothing.  
  
"This was supposed to be a formal meeting." Her words were strong and the only reason Vaughn had for knowing that she was kidding was the slight glint in her eyes.  
  
He grinned, "Sorry." They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, looking around the room and stealing glances at each other every few seconds. Eventually Vaughn spoke again, "Well, I'd better be going."  
  
Sydney shut her eyes as she thought for a moment and when she opened them again he was up and moving for the door. "Hang on, I thought you called this meeting."  
  
"I did." His eyes dropped.  
  
"You didn't have a reason?" she stood up and walked over to stand between him and the only means of escape.  
  
"Well, I wanted to talk to you, to tell you something." Vaughn shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. They became even tighter as his hands stole the loose material.  
  
"What?" Sydney tried to coax him out, changing her voice to suit the aim of the conversation. "What Vaughn?"  
  
"Nothing, I...I changed my mind. It's not important." He moved to walk out. But she blocked him getting so close that he had to either move back into the room, stop breathing or feel the length of her body against his. He moved back and leaned against the wire fence. He stared at her and his forehead creased. 


	4. Making a deal

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Well, I'm not notorious for finishing fics, but reviews will get me moving. I really like them whether they are mean or nice just as long as I know that someone is reading this. It will have a happy ending, I promise. Um, also I live in Australia so if I make mistakes or spell mom mum (which I won't on my end of year English exam I spelt mom mom and my teacher just thought it was great.) don't get made. Also I don't think I'll try to incorporate any of the real show's plot because it's too hard to keep up. Also anyone wanna e-mail me, just do it, I don't mind, I'd actually love for you to, makes me feel wanted. Donna__rose@hotmail.com Keep reading and reviewing please ppl.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
For some reason Sydney was finding this extremely funny to watch, she knew it was wrong, to make him feel so bad but the deep red that was slowly creeping up his neck onto his cheeks gave her a perfect mixture of humour and provocation. She continued to watch him as he moved even further into the caged room. "What did you want to talk to me about?" Sydney almost purred. She was shocking herself with her own behaviour, it was like she was making it her own personal mission to find out his reason for being there and she would do anything, including act like this, to get an answer.  
  
"Well?" she asked again, her face dipping out of view as she stifled a laugh at the look of horror that had planted itself across his perfect face. "You can tell me you know." She looked at him as he calculated the situation carefully.  
  
"I'll tell you...I'll tell you the truth if you tell me what you were thinking last night," he was trying to cut a deal. He was that nervous about the current situation so he was desperately trying to get out of it. Even if it meant admitting something he clearly didn't have the aptitude to say out loud without pressure.  
  
"Only what I was thinking last night?" He nodded as she pretended to mull over the deal for a while. A sharp incline of her head and the recline of her body, away from him and to the side of the door, told him that they had an agreement. "Deal, now spill."  
  
"No, no," he made for the door," tossing a look over his shoulder, "Has your phone been checked for bugs?" She told him that it had. "Good," he smirked, "I'll call you once I'm in my car." He ran for it, his speed causing her to pause before running after him at her own killer pace.  
  
She decided that she didn't like the whole idea of the phone.  
  
Sadly, due to a mixture of Vaughn's intensive training ever since the events of Taipei and Sydney's restricting suit skirt, Vaughn was in his car, revving it loudly, by the time Sydney got to the exit of the warehouse. She was tempted to scream after him but decided not to, instead grabbing her mobile as it began to ring.  
  
She scowled at the blue car as it disappeared around the bend and made her way over to her own. Opening up her cell and putting it to her ear. "That wasn't fair."  
  
His voice came back different than she remembered, almost with a wobble, "I wouldn't have had it any other way. Now, I don't really want to talk much before I tell you what I brought you there to tell you, and I will be honest, or at least as honest as I can be, but don't expect to understand, and then you have to tell me, because that's fair. Okay?" He stopped in his ramble and all Sydney could do was take the phone from her ear and give it a funny look.  
  
That was one of the longest rambles Vaughn had ever made in her presence and it was really quite shocking to see such a strong man reduced to a sentence that was almost fifty words long. Sydney on the other hand promised herself she wouldn't ramble and replied, putting the phone on hands free as she started the car. She headed home, vowing that this discussion wouldn't last longer than the trip, because she wasn't going to tell him too much. "Go on, tell me."  
  
"Okay, I took Donovan, my dog, for a walk last night, a very, very long walk. We ended up in a lovely street, sitting and eating breakfast. Well, no Donovan didn't get breakfast. Damn, well, anyway we were sitting there thinking and watching this woman, she was really old, sitting, all lonely, across the street and I was saying, that's what you and I will end up like."  
  
Sydney was starting to have trouble breathing properly, she could help but look down at the phone every few seconds in disbelief, she had a fair idea of where this conversation and if she was right, she was about to land in hot water. Still, Sydney couldn't help but feel something in her stomach give way every time she thought of those three little words escaping his lips and travelling to her ears.  
  
"She wasn't looking around, she was just sitting, staring at her breakfast and it was really scary, she didn't look interested in anything, not me, not Donovan, not the weather or the great sun rise. She just sat there and watched." Vaughn was having trouble getting to the point, he was sure he shouldn't and couldn't say what he really felt over the phone, yet alone to Sydney face to face, but he could at least try to make a few things clear. Unfortunately, looking back over his ramble nothing seemed very clear at all.  
  
"At any rate, this woman, she ended up looking up and catching my eye and then this guy, really old, just like her, turned up, out of no where, and they were really nice to each other and happy and then it dawned on me, the old woman was never so lonely that she couldn't be bothered taking an interest in anything. She knew what she wanted and that it was coming. You know what I mean? I'm not really very good at this whole talking thing."  
  
"Yeah, I get what you mean, but Vaughn..." she let her voice trail off, trying to get him to think twice about what it looked like he was about to say.  
  
He didn't take the hint. "So, I was thinking, I just. Hang on, let me start again." Vaughn couldn't help but be mad at himself for how stupid he must sound. He cleared his throat and started again. "Syd, we have an incredible relationship, a great bond and I know that at the moment we can't actually do anything with it, we can't go and have fun, we can't hang out we can't..." Vaughn ran out of unromantic things he wanted to do with Syd, everything left in his mind included physical contact, not all completely dirty, some just things like sitting together watching an old movie, but he couldn't say that.  
  
Realising he hadn't spoken in a couple of seconds he coughed and continued, "But, sometime in the future, we will be able to and I just wanted you to know that I want to be your friend, and that it isn't just because of work. It's because I think you're an amazing woman and I think knowing you has been an up side of my life." Vaughn bit down on his lip and turned the car off as he realised he'd been sitting in his drive for some time. He let his head slump down and released a breath as he clambered out of the car and made his way inside.  
  
Sydney was on the other side of the freeway and was still driving, looking at the phone, the corner of her eye the only thing keeping her from driving through someone's house. Who said driving with the phone in your hand was dangerous? His speech, while lovely, wasn't what she'd expected and as she parked her car out the front of her house, the incentive to go out again that day firmly planted, a pulling in her stomach continued to grow. She soon noticed that Vaughn was finished with his speech so she hastily responded: "Um, right, okay. I get ya. Yeah, you're right. We should."  
  
She was studying English at university, doing quite well and here she was with improper words and very screwed up sentences. She hit her head against the door before turning the nob and walking in. Francie was in the kitchen making breakfast and immediately looked up and asked, "Where you been, I heard you rush out early?"  
  
Sydney just motioned to the phone and walked further into the house, escaping the inquisitive ears of her room mate. "Sorry, Francie was home and I didn't want to say anything."  
  
"That's fine." Vaughn was back to his old self, his guts spilled and his heart still, shockingly, beating. "So, now enlighten me Miss Bristow. What were you thinking about?"  
  
Sydney flopped on her bed, rolling over to search for some gum. "I don't know if I should tell you."  
  
"What? Why not?" Vaughn's voice was full of confusion and he was obviously scoffing at her statement.  
  
"Well, first you ran out without discussing the finer points of our deal and then you don't give me the whole story anyway." She felt a tiny bit guilty as she spoke, knowing full well that she wasn't going to tell him the whole account of what she had been thinking.  
  
"Please," he lowered his voice into a pleading whisper, ignoring the fact that she knew he hadn't given her the full version.  
  
"I was thinking about something I've always wanted to do. I was just having an impossible dream..." she trailed off, trying but failing to gauge his reaction over the phone.  
  
"Go on," his voice was hesitant as Vaughn sat down on the couch with a cold cup of coffee that had been in the fridge for a couple of days.  
  
"Well, I was just wishing that Francie, my room mate, could meet you. That we could talk about my work as a spy like it was something she knew about. Joke around together. Have fun." Syd was careful to make it a completely neutral wish with no strings of romance attached.  
  
"You don't want to be the one to tell her?" Vaughn asked, his voice lighter than it had been.  
  
"No, I just think if she could find out some other way and then one day she just walks in and the three of us sit down and laugh about Marshall or the ridiculous clothes I have to wear." Syd heard a knock at the door, "Hey, Vaughn, I have got to go, but we're even now, so don't ring me up wanting more." She heard him chuckle a little before hanging up.  
  
Francie opened the door and came in. "What's up," Sydney asked as she took a seat beside her.  
  
"Nothing really," I just wanted to tell you that I'm going to be busy all day; there's a problem with the company that provides me with most of the food. And I have a meeting in like an hour on the other side of the freeway and I won't be home until lunch. Then I have a shit-load of paperwork, so I'm going to lock myself in my room til that's done. I'm sorry honey, I won't be able to hang out until tonight." Francie stood up, her bowl of cereal in her hand and turned around. "What you going to do?"  
  
"I dunno, I think I'll go see a movie." Sydney frowned at the prospect of going alone and decided to call Will up.  
  
"Okay, well, I have got to go like in two minutes, so I'll see you later." Francie left the room and Sydney collapsed back onto the matress.  
  
Later that day, just after twelve, Sydney was stuck on the far side of town, alone after Will had declined, having won a triple movie pass and was now sitting through her second film. Back at home, Francie was walking up the path, her arms full of papers and the keys in her mouth. She opened the door and backed in, pushing the door open with her rear and dumped the papers on the couch closest to the door.  
  
A male voice, warm but hesitant cut through the silence, "Lucky I didn't choose that seat," and as a result Francie found herself whirling around to find a tall, slim, incredibly delicious man sitting on her sofa. He lifted a hand, "Don't be scared. I'm a friend of Sydney's. You must be Francie?"  
  
She nodded, but her defensive stance remained. "I work at the back, my name's Michael Vaughn." 


	5. Really Hot Gossip

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Okay, on to Chapter Five, I am loving the reviews, and look how fast I'm going! Keep them coming and I'll keep writing, that's a promise. Also, go and check out my other fic True Lies, people seem to be liking that one so I hope you do go and take a look. Please everyone who reads this just leave a review, even if it's just two words, I'd be soooo happy.  
  
Chapter Five  
  
Francie nodded slightly as she backed away from him, her eyes narrowed into slits as she looked him over. "Sydney's never mentioned anyone called Michael. I'll be right back." She turned and left the room, Vaughn could only sit and bite his lip as he evaluated the situation. Francie was reacting with the predicted distrust but Vaughn hadn't planned on her running away so quickly.  
  
Standing up, he made to follow her down the hall of the house. He didn't really know where he was going as he had only explored the front room, leaving the de-bugging to the experts. He made his way down the hall and was silently looking for Francie when he heard her voice from behind a closed door.  
  
"Sydney, there's this man here."  
  
Sydney was just walking out of the theatre, choosing her next film when her mobile rang. Taking it out she listened as Francie talked, "Sydney, there's this man here. He says he works with you, he was just sitting on the chair when I walked in."  
  
Sydney's heart began to race, had SD-6 sent someone? "Francie, Francie, calm down, what's his name?"  
  
"He says his name is Michael Vaughn." Sydney cut across her as she forgot about the movie and began to run for her car at full speed.  
  
"Francie, he's a friend, do not let him leave that house." She hung up the phone and continued down the street at full pelt, her speed gaining estranged looks from many of the people lining the streets. She was at least an hour's drive from home and she silently hoped that nothing had gone wrong. She turned her phone off as she climbed into her car.  
  
Francie continued to talk into the phone, "Sydney, Sydney..." but get no reply, she looked up to find Vaughn standing in her door way. "She said it's true, then she hung up on me."  
  
Vaughn realised who she'd been talking to and motioned for her to join him back out in the living room. He was running short on time now; he had perhaps an hour to talk instead of three, to get this over with. Francie sat down, quite stiffly, in a chair across from the one Vaughn chose. "You work with Sydney at the bank?"  
  
"No," Vaughn didn't have time to try to make this easy, he'd organised this entire thing and it was not going to stuff it self because of one stupid phone call. "Have you ever noticed that Syd seems to work very hard for that bank?"  
  
Francie looked back at him, the beginning of curiosity sparkling in the corner of her eyes. "I had noticed that, yeah."  
  
"Right, good, and what about overseas trips, she goes on a lot of them?" Francie could only nod in response, the man in front of her seeming to be able to read her mind. "Good, um, this is really hard. I want to tell you something but before I do, I do not want you rushing out. You have to promise that no matter what I say, you won't run." Vaughn gulped and stared at her, trying to pick up on her feelings.  
  
Francie sat back in the chair, acting as though she was preparing herself for some very juicy gossip. She nodded and reinforced it with: "Yes, I promise, I'll stay right here."  
  
Vaughn nodded. "Okay, I'm just going to come out and say this." He paused, aware that this wasn't how the script was supposed to be playing out. He was supposed to come in here, tell Francie and whisk Syd away on a white horse. The image raised an eyebrow and he summoned up the courage to say what he wanted to. "Sydney is CIA."  
  
Francie didn't react for several seconds, just sitting there, her face frozen, her hands not moving and her eyes glued to Vaughn's face. "That doesn't make any sense."  
  
"No, it does." Vaughn leaned over, just enough to appear friendly but not intrusive. "Think about it, she always rushes off to the bank, you don't know anyone she works with except Dixon, her boss works her like a slave and she is always out of town."  
  
Francie nodded slightly to herself. "Okay, let's say I do believe you. Sydney is CIA. What is she, like a spy?" Francie was biting her finger nails, a bad sign, but still, she hadn't run out the door.  
  
Vaughn nodded. "Okay, she isn't exactly a spy, she'd a double agent, I'm her handler, her connection with the CIA. She used to work for a group that claimed they were a covert branch of the CIA. Eventually she found out that they weren't and joined the CIA while pretending to stay with them. Since that time, I've been giving her counter missions and keeping her up to date." Vaughn looked back and realised how much he had left out.  
  
Francie was blown away; she stood up and began to pace, back and forth, in front of Vaughn, a hand to her head. "Sydney's a double agent?" Vaughn nodded. "Does anyone else know?"  
  
"She told Danny, her fiancée, that she worked for the CIA. This was before she realised that she was working for the enemy. Her boss had him killed."  
  
"Hang on, you're saying that Will was right? Danny and that Kate Jones were murdered." Vaughn nodded. "By SD-6?"  
  
"Yeah, that's who Sydney works for." Vaughn paused, "You wanted to know who else knows. Will knows a lot of it," Francie's eyes widened. "A few people at the CIA, me and her dad."  
  
"Hang on, Will knew all this time and he didn't say anything?" Francie stopped waiting for a response  
  
"He was looking into SD-6 too much and he was captured, tortured, it's a very long story. But he knows a lot of it." Vaughn glanced at his watch, still at least half an hour.  
  
"Did you say her dad?" Francie looked doubtful but Vaughn nodded enthusiastically to confirm his point. "As in Jack Bristow?"  
  
"Mmm, one of the best."  
  
"One of the best whats? He sells aeroplane parts. Why the hell does he know?" Francie just stared at Vaughn, oblivious to the answer that was causing Vaughn to smile slightly.  
  
"Jack's a double agent as well. He works at SD-6 with Sydney, they go on missions together." Vaughn laughed at Francie's outraged look of shock. "It's true, cross my heart. He's considered a brilliant agent."  
  
"I thought he sold aeroplane parts." Francie looked up. "What else am I allowed to know?"  
  
"Everything, I should probably fill you in on a few names first though cause thanks to your little phone call Syd'll be home very soon." Francie leaned back in the chair and raised an eyebrow, she was fully relaxed with this man, quite a shock considering the news he brought with him, but still, definitely a plus. He smiled at her and he began counting people off on his fingers. "Okay, well, I'm her handler, Michael Vaughn, my boss's name is Devlin, and my best friends name is Eric Weiss."  
  
"Why do I have to know him?" Francie looked down sheepishly at her rude remark, "Sorry, I mean, what is his connection to Sydney?"  
  
"He's helped out on a few missions." Vaughn waited for any other questions, there were none. "The head of SD-6 is Sloane, Arvin Sloane." Vaughn waited for a remark and got one.  
  
"God, he sounds sinister."  
  
"He is. Then there's Dixon, her partner, he's a good guy, Marshall, he's the tech guy, good as well, um, her Dad of course and the latest addition is her mother who may or may not be evil." Vaughn realised just how crude he sounded a few seconds after he registered the shocked look that immediately overtook Francie's facial features. "I think she might actually be okay, but it's a delicate subject."  
  
Francie nodded. "This is a lot to take in," she muttered.  
  
"I realise that but as I said you did sort of cut my time." Vaughn smiled at her. "Any more questions?"  
  
"Yeah, why exactly are you telling me all of this now?" Francie shook her head and sat back down, the rumples in her jacket returning as she slumped in her chair.  
  
"As I said I'm her handler and I believe that it would help her in the field if she had someone to talk to this about." Vaughn smiled lightly at the end and winked at Francie who just laughed back as she realised his words held little truth.  
  
"Sydney really needs someone to talk about all this with, not just the bad stuff, but like just joke around with," Vaughn told her, somehow coming to the conclusion that being honest in this instance was the best thing to do. "I owe her my life; this is the best I could manage."  
  
Francie shook her head, "Hang on...did you give her a silver antique picture frame?" Vaughn grinned awkwardly, proving Francie's first thoughts about how good he could look. "You did? Oh my god, she loves that thing."  
  
"That's good, I thought she would. Now, we've got like twenty minutes until we should start expecting her so start asking questions, I can tell you what ever you want to know." Vaughn sat forward, completely prepared to answer any questions this very friendly woman could throw at him.  
  
Francie opened her mouth, but quickly become conscious of the fact that she had far too many questions to ask and so closed her mouth again and waited until she came up with one she really wanted to know about. "What country does my 'normal little room mate' operate in mostly?"  
  
Vaughn looked helpless for a second, before looking her in the eye and started to count off the countries as he remembered them, "Taiwan, Italy, France, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Greece, Germany, Singapore, Russia, Brazil, England, Romania, India, should I keep going?" Vaughn grinned  
  
"My God, she's been everywhere, huh. So every time she said Boston or Seattle she was actually on the other side of the world chasing bad guys?" Francie grinned at him as he smiled at her. This was much easier than Vaughn had expected it to be.  
  
"Hmm mmm. In stilettos." Vaughn laughed at her questioning look. "Her boss, Sloane, has this thing about tight dresses and high heels; must be hell to run around in. When she rescued me in Taipei." He shook his head as she looked about to ask another question, "She was in a blond wig and this low neck black dress. Great to look at but hey, she was supposed to be trying to get some stuff from the bad guys."  
  
"Great to look at huh?" Francie grinned at Vaughn as his face fell, "Well, Michael, I've discovered quite a few things this afternoon, but this is just as good."  
  
"Hey, no, don't turn this on me." He waited but she just smiled at him playfully. He put a hand to his brow and wiped away the invisible sweat that had begun to seep out. "Any more questions..."  
  
"Yeah, what do I do when she gets home?" Vaughn grinned, he could really just sit here with this woman forever, he understood why Sydney loved her so much.  
  
"I have absolutely no idea." As Vaughn spoke he heard car tyres screech outside and along with Francie he was on his feet and out on the pavement before Francie could ask where he was off to. Outside the pair was faced with a car tearing down the street well over the speed limit with Sydney sitting, dark glasses perched on her nose, at the wheel.  
  
Vaughn could do naught but laugh as she swung around hard, back tyres spinning as they looked for something to grab onto, and pulled into the drive, stepping on the brakes hard enough to stop her from driving head first into the house. Undoing her seat belt she began to clamber out of the car. Francie turned a little and muttered to Vaughn, "I didn't know she could drive like that."  
  
"Trust me, wait until she gets me inside, if you're lucky I should last about ten seconds before she has both my legs broken in at least five places." He grinned before guiding Francie inside.  
  
Sydney was right behind him and as they heard the door slam behind them, Vaughn winced as he was pushed further into the house, by what were apparently her sunglasses. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sydney spat, out of breath and her voice apparently pumped with adrenaline.  
  
Francie sat to the side, a huge grin stuck to her face as she watched. She had expected to feel weird around Sydney now that she knew about her, but she just felt eternally proud to know her. None the less, Francie was perfectly happy to watch the chemistry play out in front of her.  
  
"You could have us all killed." Sydney said from behind Vaughn who was now up against the wall, still grinning from ear to ear, confident that she wouldn't kill him. A sharp shove in the back, straight between his ribs, with a finger, dimmed that confidence. "I mean, what on earth, how much does she know?"  
  
"She knows as much as I could tell her in the forty five minutes we got, how the hell did you get home so quickly?" Vaughn tried to straighten his face as she loosened her grip and allowed him to turn around.  
  
"I ran every red light, was over the speed limit by at least 30 and forgot about the rail road crossings." She glared at him while he just laughed it off, amused at the idea of her driving around LA like that.  
  
"Look, just calm down, everything is completely under control, none of this is dangerous." Vaughn set her down in a chair and continued; "When you had both left earlier today, I had a team come in here. Before that, I had an undercover sweep of the place to make sure there wasn't going o be anyone watching and put the road cameras on loop. The team that came in here, came with me, we posed as thieves so even if someone was watching it just looked like a robbery." Francie raised an eyebrow but didn't speak.  
  
"The entire house has been de-bugged and we have a tech team watching for transmissions anyway. The only way anyone is going to find out that I'm here, is if one of you tell someone you shouldn't." Vaughn checked off everything in his mind but when he saw Sydney opening her mouth, a look of caution still on her face, he knew he'd left one base unmentioned.  
  
"What about running outside? Anyone watching would have seen you." Sydney's voice was slower now, her chest no longer heaving with the effort of driving so fast.  
  
"We have agents everywhere and anyone with in two kilometres has background checks done on them the minute they enter the area. Anything and I leave straight away and you run, with Francie." Vaughn sat down and watched as Sydney reluctantly joined him.  
  
She turned to Francie who was smiling slightly, "You know everything?"  
  
"I think so," she looked at Vaughn before continuing, "Your handler told me about Danny, your dad, your mom, everything about you being a double agent."  
  
"I've freaked you out haven't I?" Sydney dropped her head and Vaughn just looked at Francie, silently praying she had something nice to say.  
  
Francie leaned over and took her room mate's hands in her own and said. "Actually it sound's sort of cool. It is a bit scary and it must be horrible, but it sounds cool. I'm sorry if that's insensitive, but it just, I don't know, it sounds like something I'd like to talk about." Francie looked at Vaughn who nodded encouragement.  
  
Sydney looked up at Vaughn, her face softening as comprehension hit her in the stomach. "You did all of this because of what I said," he nodded weakly. "How did you organise all of this."  
  
Vaughn's face quickly turned scarlet. "Oh, um, I sort of told Devlin that I would quit unless he let me do this."  
  
"And that worked?" Sydney looked at him, doubt in her eyes, completely shocked that a claim such as that had worked.  
  
"Well, he figured that if I left, you'd be pretty upset, so he let me do it." Vaughn shrugged it off and turned back to Francie. "Francie took it all very well."  
  
Sydney just continued to stare at Vaughn. She couldn't believe that he'd threatened to quit just so she could have something that she wanted, what a sweet thing to do. Eventually she realised that Francie and Vaughn were both staring at her. "Yes, she did, very well." Her face fell a little and she frowned, "Francie, I am sorry I couldn't tell you, it's just that..."  
  
Francie held up a hand and motioned for her to stop. "It's fine, I'm just awfully interested in what it is you do. I mean, when do you meet Michael?"  
  
Sydney frowned, "Who's Michael?" Francie looked confused but Vaughn couldn't help but let out a small chuckle before waving a hand in front of Sydney's face and raising his eyebrows as if to say, 'Hello, remember me? Michael?'.  
  
"Oh, Michael, um, he'd call and I'd just leave." Francie continued to look puzzled and so Sydney explained, "I call him Vaughn. Never call him Michael."  
  
A playful murmur came from where Vaughn was now sitting watching the girls speak. "Don't know why she insists on calling me Vaughn. I mean I call her Syd all of the time."  
  
"It's against protocol. And calling my 'Syd' put you straight into my dad's bad books, you should have learnt from that." Sydney turned back to Francie and continued to explain. "Every time that we got the wrong number call about Joey's Pizza; that was Vaughn signalling a meeting."  
  
Revelation dawned on Francie's face. "Oh my God, you mean, every time?"  
  
"Every time," Michael grinned, "I remember once you answered, went completely off at me. 'Yeah, this is Joey's Pizza, do you want to hear our specials?'" Vaughn's impersonation wasn't very good, but it still got a giggle out of both of them. Francie obviously remembered the occasion.  
  
Much, much later that day, at around ten pm, Vaughn stood from where he'd been lounging on the floor. They'd discussed everything from Marshall to Sydney's dad and it had all gone fine. Sydney had had a great time, as far as Vaughn could tell, and by the end of three cups of coffee and Chinese take-out, everyone was low on voice and very sleepy. Francie stood with him, detecting the end of the day.  
  
Vaughn held out a hand, but Francie pulled him into a hug. He felt uncomfortable for only a second before melting into the embrace as he spied Sydney watching, obviously quite content, from behind Francie. As Francie let go, she said, "It was really, really good to meet you Michael. You should come over again tomorrow. I had fun."  
  
"Me, too," Vaughn replied. Francie began to make her way to her bedroom and paused only a second when she heard Vaughn call out, "Good night," behind her. She said good night back and disappeared into her room.  
  
Vaughn collapsed into a chair, massaging his throat, and looked at Sydney who grinned back, her eyes lighter than usual and her cheeks full and perfect as her lips turned up. "Thank you," she whispered.  
  
"It was fun," Vaughn said, "I will come over tomorrow, if that's okay." He looked at her questioningly, looking for any hint of hesitation, when she smiled and nodded with no indecision, he could do little more than grin back. "I had better get going; all of the agents take off at eleven." He stood up and headed for the door.  
  
Sydney stood and followed him out onto the front step. "I really don't know how to thank you." Vaughn could think of a few things and by the weird look Sydney was giving him; the goofy grin was giving his thoughts away. "But, you do know how much this means to me?"  
  
Vaughn nodded, "You deserve it."  
  
Sydney took a deep breath and looked out over her street, it was very dark. She looked up at Vaughn and her stomach suddenly was full or what she would only call butterflies. "Sydney..." She hushed him with a finger to his lips before turning to him and raising herself up on tip toes.  
  
"Thank you," she mumbled before leaning in, closer to him than she had ever been before...  
  
Reviews will get you another chapter....so go and review!! And check out my other story as well! 


	6. To Listen, or Not To Listen

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Ahem, thank you for all of your reviews, they're great. Sadly, this is a short chapter, depending on reviews, my next chapter maybe longer. I must also inform you that after my next chapter, early Monday morning, I will be without the net until Thursday morning, and even then, I am unsure of my availability to publish anything. So enjoy, this is your second last for a couple of days. If I get a lot of reviews, you never know where I might find a PC ;)  
  
Chapter Six  
  
Close enough to touch him, completely, anywhere she wanted, but she couldn't, she knew that much. It wasn't allowed and it would ultimately get them killed, that is what she knew, that is what she had been taught. Vaughn was looking at her, careful not to move too near, but then, not moving away either. She moved back ever so slightly before swallowing and moving in to kiss him lightly on the cheek, her lips setting fire to his cheek and his day old stubble covered skin doing the same to her lips.  
  
"Thank you, this is more than I ever could have wished for." Sydney stepped back and grinned, her perfect teeth showing and her eyes twinkling in the soft light that was causing shadows to fall handsomely over half of Vaughn's face.  
  
"Me too," Vaughn couldn't help but let her have some clue of what he wanted from her, even if he couldn't do what he really wanted to do, he couldn't grab her and kiss her until both of them felt light from the lack of air. He couldn't take her out to dinner, but he could have this, this small and simple kiss, on the cheek, that had his heart racing and his entire body almost on fire, the place her lips had grazed his cheek felt as though someone was blowing flames on it. Self consciously, he lifted a hand to his face to realise that if he was as red as he felt, it was showing.  
  
Sydney giggled giddily as he smiled at her, his eyes shining more than ever and began to walk away, no more words needed. She lifted a hand to wave good bye and watched as he made his way across the street to a sleek- looking blue car. Opening the door her turned and looked back, still grinning from ear to ear. Sydney could have sworn she heard a soft "Yes," as the door slammed and Vaughn went driving off into the night.  
  
Shaking her head, Sydney turned and walked back in side. Francie was leaning over the counter, her hair done up loosly and pyjamas visible under an undone dressing gown. Sydney smiled at her helplessly. The chances of her being able to keep her mouth shut about the most recent special event in her life, very low considering she was able to talk to Francie about work now.  
  
"Wow," Francie said, lifting a cup of coffee to her lips. Obviously she wasn't as tired as she had made out.  
  
"Being a spy is pretty 'wow'" Sydney told her but she only shook her head in response.  
  
"I wasn't talking about that...him," she motioned towards the door. "Who is he? I mean your handler? I get all that stuff he does, but I mean, WHO is he?" Francie held up a cup of coffee for Sydney and moved so that she could stand beside her.  
  
"He's my handler," Sydney leaned over, letting her hair out of the tight pony tail it had been in for the last twelve hours. "He was the only one I could really talk to about everything, but now I've got you."  
  
Francie's eyebrows rose in question, "Just your handler?" Sydney nodded, a smile growing. "Nothing more?" Sydney shook her head sternly, the grin spreading over her entire face. "Oh, okay, cool." Francie made to move on to another question, but Sydney stopped her with a quick but harmless slap to the arm. "What?"  
  
Sydney looked down, "Stop playing around."  
  
"I'm not playing around. Why? Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Francie put her coffee down and turned to Sydney with an 'I know what you're up to look' firmly plastered across her face.  
  
"He is pretty cute," Sydney raised a hand to her mouth as she realised what she'd just said. "I didn't mean that."  
  
"Hey, I think the guy's hot, if you don't think that that man is hot, you had better get your eyes tested." Francie watched Sydney as she grinned up at her. "He is hot?"  
  
"Yes, he is, very, extremely, incredibly, tremendously, unbelievably hot," Sydney hung her head and laughed along with her friend. "Do you have any idea how long I wished I could say that? My God that felt good."  
  
Francie just looked at her, "You really like him. Don't you. Here I was thinking you were totally off guys and you were simply uninterested because you had to wait for your pizza boy to call so you could rush off to another meeting with him." Francie giggled.  
  
"How could you not like him? I mean look at that face. He's French, perfect. And green eyes, did you see those green eyes?" Sydney threw caution to the wind, many times she'd discussed life with Francie and she was not going to pass up a chance like this. "My tall, strong, knight in shining armour."  
  
Francie was shocked, "How badly have you got it?"  
  
"I don't know. I just can't wait to get to those meetings, despite the fact that they result in my capture , injury or some other horrible thing. I just like to be around him. He has a great sense of humour," Francie nodded, a little too enthusiastically, to show she understood, "A great personality, ambitious, sweet, charming, passionate, everything I've ever wanted and then some."  
  
Realisation dawned on Francie's face, "Oh my God, Sydney! You love him?! I'm right aren't I? Oh my God, I'm right." Francie was getting too excited, too quickly, so Sydney had to interject.  
  
"I don't know, we can't actually go ahead with anything, we can't even discuss it because of the situation." Francie looked confused so Sydney hastily elaborated. "It's CIA protocol that an agent should never mix socially, yet alone romantically, with their handler. Big, huge, horrible rules. I don't even know how he feels."  
  
"You don't know how he feels?" Francie looked at her as though Sydney had suddenly grown another eye, dead centre in her forehead. "Did you not see him after one little kiss on the." She stopped quickly as she noticed Sydney's face change from girlish humour to complete shock and horror.  
  
"You were watching?" Francie looked away but didn't deny it. "God and I didn't notice, I'm supposed to be a super spy."  
  
"Sydney," Francie had a shot at calming her down, "I had just come down stairs and you weren't here so I looked out the window and...well, like I'm gonna turn around. You know me. He was very happy with it though. Was that like the furthest you've ever gone?" Sydney nodded, "What? You've been hanging out with this guy for years and the most you've managed is a kiss on the cheek. Syd, that's hopeless, if I were you I would have jumped him on, like, the second day."  
  
Sydney shrugged but couldn't help but ask, "You really think he was happy I did that?"  
  
Francie looked at her incredulously, "Sydney, that man is obviously head over heals for you. I mean, from what you've told me, he flies all over the world for you, buys you presents that then get him stuck with the shrink on his back, he's flown you all over the world illegally and, this is impressive, gone up against your dad for you. I mean, honestly, why would anyone do all of that if they didn't love you. Honestly Syd, how can you even doubt this?" Francie stood back and yawned before Sydney could continue her questioning.  
  
"I'm really tired, for real now, he's coming over tomorrow, so be up early enough to get all nice looking," Sydney looked as though she was taking her roommate seriously so Francie added, "Just kidding, have a good sleep. Good night."  
  
Sydney smiled serenely at Francie's departing form and made her own way to her bedroom. Stripping off, she pulled on a tank top and a baggy, comfortable pair of pink flannel pyjama pants and rolled into bed. The day, though it had began badly, was defiantly looking good now. Francie knew Vaughn, she had another day before Sloane was going to try to track her down and Francie had confirmed what she hoped and feared to be true. Now, all she wanted was to live happily ever after. Little chance of that, but for the moment she was happy.  
  
Surprisingly she didn't lie in bed trying to stay awake, scared of nightmares and the day that would bring her closer to her next run in with fatality. Instead she positioned herself on her back and shut her eyes tight, willing her mind to slow down and let her drift into slumber.  
  
Vaughn turned his back on Sydney as soon as he felt able to move without falling over; her lips were cold and hot at the same time, brushing briefly up against his cheek. He'd thought she was going to kiss him properly; he had hoped and prayed that she was going to kiss him properly, but hell, if a kiss on the cheek did this to him, he wouldn't be kissing Sydney Bristow until he was at least sitting down and paramedics were on site.  
  
Moving away from her, he felt like he was floating, he'd never known what people meant when they said 'I was walking on air', but hell he was floating on air. He grinned as broadly as he could without breaking his jaw. Then swallowed trying to regain his composure and put in extra willpower to dim the glow his smile was emitting.  
  
He turned back to Sydney as he reached his car and the glow returned; he waved a little at her before clambering into the car. He started the engine and searched for the right buttons, setting his blinker off and the radio before he found the hand break. He drove slowly around the corner before speeding up and continuing down to the house at the end of the street.  
  
Luckily it was an empty CIA safe house and he'd been given full control over the place by Devlin so that he could monitor Sydney's house from near by. Stepping out of the car as he pulled into the drive he walked inside. No one was in there, everyone having nocked off at eleven but several computers were still on and executing programs. Each hooked up to a dozen agents' phones so that if anything did go wrong, the computer could summon agents on the spot.  
  
Vaughn smiled as he found everything to be normal before looking to a certain computer and lifting an eyebrow, he checked the recording device that was hooked up to the PC and made his way towards the shower. He wandered in and pulled his shirt off, rolling his shoulders and flexing his perfectly toned and tanned back and arms, trying to relieve the tension that had built up from a day of confinement to a house.  
  
Vaughn gazed at the shower and, as if on cue, his eyes wandered to the bath. He didn't, for some very weird, very selfish and very abnormal reason, want to get his cheek wet. He grinned at his own silly ideal. He shook his head and turned to look for a towel. Finding a fluffy red one he put it onto the hook next to the bath. Turning around he kicked off his shoes and turned the water on.  
  
A beeping from the computer room sent his head upwards, his eyes wide and alert, after a second's thought, he realised the meaning of the beep and walked, half naked out of the bathroom, leaving the hot water flowing. He patted the computer and chuckled at his own illogical behaviour. Grabbing the tape out from the recording device he pushed another in and hooked it back up.  
  
Ten minutes later, Vaughn had a full bath and had finally found a cassette player and was leaning over, hooking it up, just inside the bathroom door. As he turned the cassette over in his hands he couldn't help but feel guilty, still, Devlin demanded it be done without Sydney's awareness and Vaughn figured he was the best man for it.  
  
He put the tape in and pressed play. Stripping down completely he sank into the bath water, the steam fogging his vision. He closed his eyes and thought about the day with a smile on his lips. His happy thoughts didn't last long; Sydney's voice flowed from the cassette into the room, pulling Vaughn up a little and forcing his eyes open, "Being a spy is pretty 'wow'". 


	7. Softly Harsh

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending, eventually. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Okay, this is it for a couple of days, not my problem, lol. I hope that there are lots of reviews for me when I get back. And I hope you enjoy it.  
  
Chapter Seven  
  
Twenty minutes later Vaughn was sitting cross legged in the bath, his arms dangling over the side, his brow creased while his mouth tried not to smile. The tape had started relatively innocently and it wasn't as if Vaughn was doing it because he wanted to. Devlin had demanded that all conversations without him present be taped and listened to, just to make sure Sydney didn't let something too big slip and to watch for signs that Francie was thinking about doing something stupid or was a spy.  
  
Vaughn had been able to see the entire scene in his head and as the conversation quickly turned to him he wanted to turn the tape off but something inside him wouldn't let him do it. He had been forced to sit there, his heart screaming for joy and his head screaming at him for being so wrong. The dialogue had been completely about him, most of it pretty superficial but it had also held small and large truths that he wasn't going to be able to hide now that he knew them.  
  
Vaughn wasn't really angry at Sydney or Francie despite the fact that his mind was blaming them, he was almost thankful that it was out in the open. But then he remembered that it wasn't, that while Sydney had admitted it, she had no idea he knew. And she still couldn't be sure if he did love her and, he supposed, he couldn't be sure that she loved him because she hadn't actually said anything.  
  
Awkwardly, he climbed out of the bath and onto the mat, grabbing the fluffy towel; he wrapped it around his waist and walked out into the hall to check one last time on the computers. Finding everything in order, Vaughn turned and wandered over to where his clothes lay, neatly folded on the ground. He grabbed a pair of his favourite boxers and left the towel to dry on the ground. Rubbing his eyes and letting a yawn escape his lips, Vaughn set the alarm clock for five, knowing that agents would begin to arrive at six, and fell onto the couch, pulling a blanket over his body and cuddling into the comfy material.  
  
Shutting and opening his eyes, Vaughn looked for sleep but found no way to drift into slumber. He lay on his back and played the conversation over and over in his head, little bits that he remembered ran through his mind, Sydney's voice ringing out as he debated over whether this was a good thing or not.  
  
"Very, extremely, incredibly, tremendously, unbelievably hot," Vaughn had to grin at that, she truly was a great spy if she thought that, because she had never given even the slightest hint she thought of him like that. His hands went up behind his head as he realised that this was, if only for him, a very good thing to know.  
  
An alarm went off in Sydney's house a few minutes past seven and in two different rooms two heads shot up. Francie wandered out of her room, her hands in the air as though it were too dark for her to see and her eyes squinting against the bright light of morning. Sydney waltzed out of her room, head high and blue silk dressing gown flowing out behind her. She smiled at Francie, positively beaming. "Good morning!"  
  
Francie just looked at her, upset that she had been woken up so early. "No offence but are you sure they call a time like this morning, I figure dawn and if you look up 'dawn' in the dictionary I think it will say Francie will still be in bed at this time on a Sunday!" Sydney just grinned back, not worried at her friend's grumpy morning persona  
  
"Go and have a shower, I'll make breakfast." Sydney made for the kitchen, her roommate just staring at a woman who had, the morning before, rolled out of bed to answer the phone and then spent the next ten minutes ranting about getting up early. Francie eventually decided to go and wash as she doubted that Sydney would make breakfast unless she did.  
  
After spending twenty minutes under steaming water, Francie felt much better, but still tired. She put her pyjama pants back on and found a tank top that would do until she could find something worth really wearing for the day. Wandering down to the kitchen she found Sydney working furiously over the stove, flipping pancakes and trying to make a batch of coffee.  
  
At the sound of Francie's footsteps, Sydney whirled around exasperation written all over her face. "Finally. Vaughn will be here in like ten minutes. Can you handle these?"  
  
"What do you mean 'Vaughn'll be here in ten minutes'," Sydney stopped and turned around. "Well?"  
  
"He rang while you were in the shower and just said "I'll be there in fifteen minutes" and then he hung up. Now flip the pancakes and I'll be out in a second."  
  
Francie stared after Sydney as she headed hastily for the bathroom, picking up a towel on the way. Francie shook her head and looked down at the relatively well cooked pancakes. Finally some of her cooking talent was rubbing off. Francie continued to work in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning and organising three places at the table along with jams, lemon and sugar all the while waiting for Sydney to rush out and start asking her difficult questions.  
  
As fate would have it, a soft nock on the front door had Francie wandering out, not bothering to mind about her apparel, to let Vaughn in. She smiled serenely and let him in, planting a quick kiss on his cheek. When he just smiled, feeling strangely comfortable with Francie, she couldn't stop herself form saying, "Not the same effect as Syd hey?"  
  
Vaughn gaped at her, his face turning red as he looked at her in shock. "Don't tell Sydney I said that. You're early." Vaughn nodded dumbly.  
  
"I, um, didn't have far to come." He smiled at her as he slowly came to the comprehension that she wasn't going to say anything like that around Sydney, at least not when both of them were there.  
  
Francie was about to say something else when Sydney's voice was heard down the hall, "Francie, have you seen my jeans?" Before anyone could do anything to avoid the situation, Sydney came around the corner, green towel wrapped around her giving a shockingly good view of her legs. She was brushing her hair viciously and it took her a second to realise that her handler was standing less than four metres from her, goofy grin upon his lips and face a light shade of red.  
  
And even then, all she could say was, "You're early!"  
  
Vaughn just laughed and said, "Obviously," Francie rolling her eyes as the pair simultaneously checked each other out, Vaughn having the advantage of a lack of clothes.  
  
Sydney finished looking at his jeans and black shirt and looked back up, first at Francie who was watching both of them, an eyebrow raised high in humour and 'How could you not realise what is going on'. Next she peered over at Vaughn who she found had his eyes quite blatantly scanning up and down her legs. On impulse, she felt the muscles clench and watched as he involuntarily licked his lips.  
  
She moved her head enough to get his attention and he looked back up at her, his face slowly turning the colour of blood and a cheeky grin upon his lips. "I'll just go and get changed." Sydney said and gave a look that indicated to Francie that she was needed.  
  
Vaughn wandered into the kitchen, the smell of pancakes begging him to come and look. He found a stack of perhaps twelve large, round, steaming cakes, piled high and the oven just turned off. Looking around he realised that the table was already set and he proceeded to take the plate over to the table. Sitting down he waited for the girls' return.  
  
Racing into her room, a hand holding the towel in place, Sydney couldn't help but giggle a little at the situation. It was turning into something out of a soap and it was most probably all Francie's fault. "How could you let me walk out there like that?"  
  
"Hey," Francie said in defence, "First of all, you should have been more careful, of course there was a chance he was going to be out there and second of all like he's gonna complain." Francie laughed at the look of shock that passed over her room mates' face. "Well, it's true. Did you see his face?"  
  
"I did, and I remind you that nothing can happen," Francie smiled as though she didn't believe it but nodded her head and stood up to leave. "Give me a second, I'll be right out."  
  
While Francie doubted Sydney would be out any time soon, she stopped at the door of the kitchen watching Vaughn as he sat in one of the chairs, running a hand through his hair and grinning to himself about something. She stood there for a while and was shocked when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around she found Sydney dressed in a tracksuit, her hair still loose and dripping.  
  
Francie motioned to where Vaughn was still sitting thinking and Sydney could do little but watch.  
  
Vaughn felt the pair of eyes on him become two pairs of eyes and surmised that Sydney and Francie were both, for one reason or another watching him. He smiled even more, knowing that he was about to spend yet another fantastic day with Sydney. Cracking his jaw, he stood up purposely, careful to stretch enough to allow a glimpse of the skin at his hips and scratched at his side, slipping the shirt up higher. He had no idea why he was doing this, but it felt good. Finishing his stretch he returned to his normal stance.  
  
He laughed a little at the gasps he heard from the door and wandered over, he opened the door to find Sydney and Francie with straight faces and walking towards him as though they had never been there. He just lifted an eyebrow and moved back to the table.  
  
Once they were all seated, Francie offered the pancakes around and Vaughn was slightly shocked when Sydney took five for herself and placed them on her plate. Seeing his look she looked at his plate where three pancakes sat and felt her face blush. "I need lots of food."  
  
"I always said she was a pig, now I know why, god, all of that running. Michael said in stilettos..." Vaughn raised his eyebrows at her as Francie relieved the situation and changed the situation.  
  
"Sloane has this thing about four inch heals and tight dresses, I swear he has great taste, but I mean, they're sort of a pain." Sydney laughed as images from various missions poped into her mind. "My most common injury is a twisted ankle."  
  
"He should work in fashion," Vaughn added cheerfully.  
  
Sydney laughed and continued, "I remember once he had my trying to hang from the ceiling in this black wig and green dress with no font and the heels, I swear they almost killed me." Everyone laughed along while Francie secretively watched the two of them.  
  
She suddenly stood up, "I just remembered, I have to go and call my mom, she's been trying to grab me all week and I just remember that she's going out today." Francie disappeared with the cordless into her room leaving the room shrouded in an uncomfortable silence.  
  
Vaughn suddenly, out of no where, had the urge to tell Sydney about the bug. He still felt guilty about listening and at least if he told her she wouldn't talk about anything so private again. He swallowed before broaching the subject, trying not to look at her, "Um, Syd, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I think that you have a right to know."  
  
Sydney watched him, her heart accelerating as she began to dream of what he was about to say. "Devlin has a bug planted in here recording everything you say when I'm not here." Sydney's heart stopped, that wasn't it, and fear boiled up as she tried to remember what she'd said the night before. "Everything is transmitted to the operation's headquarters and I have to listen to it." He gulped, ready with a story if she wanted to know what he had already heard.  
  
"Vaughn," Sydney stopped and started again. "Vaughn, whatever I said, I didn't mean it."  
  
Francie stopped at the door, watching carefully as the conversation unfolded.  
  
"I haven't listened to it..." Vaughn's voice trailed off as her words sunk in. "What didn't you mean?"  
  
"What I said, it was just a show, for Francie. She doesn't understand how dangerous this is and I wanted her to feel like I was having some fun...with you." Sydney continued, unaware of the pain she was inflicting. "It was all just lies."  
  
"I don't believe you." Vaughn bit his lip.  
  
"You did listen?" Sydney's voice rose as she realised that this was going to be a hard lie to pull off. "You lied to me! Vaughn, you have to understand that it was all made up."  
  
Vaughn's eyes flickered over to the door where Francie stood to see Francie peeking through, nodding to him, showing that he was right. "I still don't believe you and yes, I lied, what was I supposed to do?"  
  
Emotion rushed over Sydney in waves, growing and growing as they smashed harder and harder into her, anger, embarrassment, fear; fear for him knowing, or fear for loosing him over something so small she didn't know. "Vaughn, this isn't the time or the place."  
  
He cut across her, "Then when? Where? Sydney this is as good a chance as we will ever get. Look me in the eye and tell me in was all made up, and I'll believe you." Vaughn had to bit his tongue to stop himself from looking to the ground, what if she could say it to his face. Was she really that good a liar? Of course she was.  
  
Sydney looked up at him, her face steely and harsh. Up past his lips, pressed hard against each other, past his nose and up to his green eyes. She looked into them and felt him looking back. She opened her mouth; sure she would be able to pull this off. "It," she coughed and looked down before raising her head again, "It was...It was..." Vaughn nodded to her, trying to draw the truth out. "It was all true."  
  
Vaughn stared at her, trying to work out what she meant. She was staring down. "Syd..."  
  
"But we can't do anything about it," she told him, "Nothing so don't try..."  
  
She was cut off as soft, sweet lips fell on hers, soft, not insistent but still with a dull, thudding passion behind the façade of timid butterfly kisses, Vaughn leaning out and in, over and over again until Sydney found herself, and her arms went up to wrap harshly around her handler's body. One under his arm and up into his hair, the other going around to his back and pushing him closer. Vaughn's next kiss didn't end so quickly, his mouth crashing down on hers and her lips opening to invite him in. His hands were in her hair and around her face, pulling her to him, gently and harshly all at once.  
  
Sydney flew backwards almost as quickly as she had flown forwards. A look of shock on her face as she watched Vaughn open his eyes and look at her hungry and confused. She shook her head and turned, running out of the front door and down the street as fast as she could.  
  
Read and Review, it's the only way to get the next part and go and look at True Lies 


	8. Good byes or not

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Okay, I know, it's been a while and I am desperate for more reviews, if you read this, write a review, plz oh plz oh plz. Otherwise, I'll never be able to finish it. Hmmm...anyways, enjoy this, I hope and go and read True Lies if you haven't it's getting more and more S/V by the minute.  
  
Chapter Eight  
  
Vaughn wanted to run after her, but knew he shouldn't, couldn't. It was too dangerous. He'd been cleared by Devlin to leave the house as long as he stayed with in thirty meters and preferably in the dark and only when necessary, a rule with sub rules. Vaughn hated every rule that he had ever come across and in his childhood he had commonly said, "Rules were made for breaking," but now, he knew that no matter what, if he broke a rule, a CIA protocol rule, he could be putting Sydney and him and possibly many others into grave danger, a danger that he would be blamed for even when he was dead. It was far too dangerous to break a rule, and he had promised himself that he wouldn't do it, not ever, not after Sydney's horror story about Danny and the wreck she had been in for some time after that. But now he was, he was breaking a rule, getting people killed. It wasn't a rule that was written down, but it was an unspoken 'don't you dare' to fall in love with an agent who you supposedly had never met.  
  
And he had, and everyone knew he had, anyone that saw them knew it. It was just that no one knew how badly. And now, he'd told her, she'd sort of told him back, and then she'd run off, obviously hurt, not by him, but by everything in her life and things were on edge and dangerous, both literally and in the emotional sense.  
  
Vaughn was tempted to get someone to tail her, just to make sure she was okay, but eventually decided not to, turning to find Francie watching him. He smiled sadly, his brows rising in a sort of temporary defeat before lowering in thought as he frowned. She just continued to watch him, analysing the situation, too scared to join in what was obviously more complicated than any relationship she had ever heard about.  
  
He shook his head and Francie, seeing what he wanted, disappeared quietly back into her own room to wait, patiently, but still extremely worriedly, for Sydney to return. Hopeful of her friend coming to her senses and seeing this as a blessing and not just another nail being driven in to her in punishment for a crime she hadn't committed. Knowing Sydney, Francie suspected she might see this as another obstacle in life, as a bother and something not to be done, still hope was all she had.  
  
Outside, in the living room, Vaughn collapsed on to a chair, a hard, wooden, plain chair that sat just inside the door. Breathing slowly, he began to run over every moment he had ever had with Sydney. The good, though few, the bad, plentiful and the ugly also not lacking in number. He sighed and leaned back wishing they could have met some other way and that they hadn't ever had to hear the word 'protocol' of 'rule' or emotional attachment'. He looked down at his watch, just after eight and he had told Devlin that he would be spending the entire day at her house. He wanted to be there when she returned, to try to set things straight, but he knew he would be in agony as the seconds clicked past.  
  
Vaughn looked at his watch, his eyes stinging for some unknown reason, his hands shaky and the dim light of the moon flickering through the open window as the curtains moved about in the wind. 10.04, a minute after when he had last looked. He breathed deeply and thought about cracking his neck. Deciding against it, his entire body too tired to move unless Syd was involved, he continued to sit and stare at the cream coloured wall opposite. Francie had reappeared just after four, hopefully looking about, and offering him a drink before returning to her bedroom to wait it out.  
  
He hadn't eaten or drank a thing and his stomach felt empty, his tongue dry and brittle, a small crack on his bottom lip would probably have bleed if it had moved at all. He looked back down at his watch, his eyes moving but nothing else budging, 10.04. Briefly he wondered if it was broken but soon realised it wasn't when he saw it tick over to 10.05. He breathed in through his nose and conjured up the first time he'd seen her. Red hair, puffed out cheeks, too much make up and a scowl the he would soon become accustomed to.  
  
He smiled; even then he had thought her special, exotic, unlike anyone he had ever met before. And when she had finished her book sized report he had read it over and over again, wanting to learn everything he could about her. He wished he'd learnt it word for word because he would of been able to think it to himself now, as he thought over his life, the majority of his memories involving the red haired goddess.  
  
He heard the door handle turning, but couldn't find the energy to look around and towards the entrance. He felt like he had gained a couple hundred pounds and was sitting underneath a large animal. Hearing familiar footsteps though, he turned, forcing his body and hearing a few cracks in his neck, back and legs. The memorable scent hitting him, gave him new but, false hope. His head turning towards her as she stopped walking, slightly tilted, ready to deflect any biting words.  
  
She smiled at him, her eyes more empty than usual and her chin low. "I'm sorry," Vaughn's eyes lit up in hope, her words grabbing him with a warm fuzzy feeling as he thought hard about what might happen next. "You tried, I tried. But it didn't, doesn't and never will work." She held out a hand, her body moving away from her own arm. "It was nice to know you."  
  
Vaughn stared, completely bemused. He had no idea what was going on, she was no longer mad at him, nor mad at anyone. She was upset and hollow. He didn't shake her hand, an eerie feeling falling over him and the message that if he did it would be the last time ever. "What is going on?" He sighed as her eyes flew to the ground.  
  
"You have been really great, you're a wonderful person. But I think that if I am to ever succeed I need someone else. Someone who isn't so...easily, um." Obviously she had had the conversation planned out in her head and it was suddenly not going completely to script. "Some one more professional."  
  
Vaughn could only stare for a moment, the word not what Sydney had meant, but the best she could think of. Swallowing Vaughn repeated his question. "Sydney, what is going on?"  
  
"You're being reassigned," Vaughn backed away instinctively. "As of today, I will be getting a new handler. It's too dangerous with you and change is good, it will throw anyone watching if I never see you again," her voice finished with no volume at all, Vaughn only understanding because he was staring at her so hard.  
  
"Why, why am I being reassigned?" He shook his head, confused and angry, "I don't get it."  
  
"You're emotionally attached. You break the rules, you lie, you don't do things by the book. You are a bad influence and as a double agent I can't have anything to do with you." Sydney moved on to facts she thought inarguable.  
  
"No, hang on," he interrupted her, "WE are emotionally attached; WE break the rules, usually together and usually because we need to. WE only lie when necessary and I lie a lot less than you," Vaughn winced as he saw the anger and hurt cross her face momentarily. "WE don't do things by the book because the book is wrong. I am not a bad influence and you saying so is only because you are addicted and you're scared." He finished quickly, seeing Sydney's expression changing to guarded in an instant.  
  
"Vaughn, this is it, I am never going to see you again," She held out her hand again. "This is good bye."  
  
Vaughn glared at her, unbelievingly, "Why do you think it's good bye? Do you want it to be?" He looked at her hand, fear bubbling up inside him.  
  
"No, I don't want it to be good bye, but I am never going to see you again and either you take this chance to say your farewells or we leave each other on bad terms." Sydney glared back, her eyes and face still guarded, Vaughn unable to read anything except the fire in her voice.  
  
"I'm not going to say good bye." She looked at him hurt and anger, rage and shock, mirrored in her eyes as her guard fell before being quickly re erected. She nodded quietly, before moving back to the front door and opening it.  
  
Vaughn stared at her incredulously, eyebrow raised and his mind hopelessly telling him it was all a bad dream and that any second now he would wake up and be able to go to a meeting and see her there, giggle over bad humour, groan over a mission to somewhere too far away or just talk. But, he knew he couldn't, and, stubborn as always, he simply stormed out past her, his blood shot eyes, daring him to walk away without looking back. He held his head high and did, storming across the road and climbing into the car he had driven that morning, when his hopes had been high.  
  
He barely made it around the corner and out of sight before he pulled over and let his head fall, hard, against the steering wheel and his entire body shuddering as he waited for sleep to take him over.  
  
Sydney watched him leave, the front door still open, tears streaming down her face when he didn't even turn back around. She knew this was her only option, that falling in love she would end up dead, or worse: betrayed, but still, she couldn't help but fall down the wall, sliding dangerously out of control, landing in a heap on the floor, small whimpers escaping as the reality hit home; she would never see him again. Ever. Her body quaking with guilt and anguish. When Francie's arms found her, she was wrapped into a small ball, her face tear stained and her back arched in a protective stance as she continued to wait for something, anything to happen on the floor, to tell her that she hadn't just done that.  
  
Still, it had had to be done, and she had done it. She would never see him again and it was for the good of the country.  
  
R & R or else. 


	9. Or else!

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Merry Christmas, lots of updates today huh! Anyways, keep reading and reviewing!!! It's taking me forever to write all of these, but hey, I have a month off school, so one chapter for each every day....Well, R&R and we'll see how it goes!  
  
Chapter Nine  
  
A week and a half later, Sydney was running at around fifty percent her capacity down a back alleyway, past the back of pubs and murky shops, bullet after bullet being fired at her as she clutched the small family photo to her chest. Sloane had sent her, completely alone on what was meant to be a simple mission. She was to enter Dream, a second hand shop in downtown England, buy the photo in its frame and leave. Unluckily, she was met with ten agents who took off after her as soon as she had exited the shop. For the past five minutes, she had weaved up and down the laneways and dodged the bullets, the whole time, promising herself that Sloane would be getting a piece of her mind when she got back.  
  
Listening carefully, she heard the men behind her breathing heavily and decided it was time to show them who was in charge. Accelerating she was soon out of sight and probably miles away. The men were left, doubled over, clutching their chests and cursing her. She went straight to the airport and caught a plane home, trying, but failing to catch up on the sleep she had been deprived of since the day when she had last seen Vaughn.  
  
The ride was bumpy and rough, she was almost ready to go and shoot the pilot but realized that this might blow her cover, this of course brought painful memories of Vaughn's joke regarding her inclination to rip Sloane's finger off and she was set for another four hours of tossing and turning.  
  
Her new handler, a fifty-something year old woman was fine. She was relatively nice, didn't stick to protocol as tightly as Sydney had expected, instead letting Sydney talk to her about things they shouldn't have been discussing but never once speaking of Vaughn. Claire was great, smart and ambitious but not Vaughn and while Sydney told herself night after night that this was what she wanted, deep down she knew it wasn't.  
  
Landing in Los Angeles, Sydney made her way home in a cab, once there; she collapsed on the sofa and fell instantly into a sleepless slumber. At several stages in the following hours, she was conscience enough to notice Francie watching over her, a worried look on her features.  
  
The night was filled with dreams, all of them bad, nothing worth remembering, but all full of hatred and bitterness. Several involving Vaughn. When Sydney did awake properly, it was to the sound of her beeper, still attached to the top of her rumpled and slightly blood splattered pants. A large, unclean gash suddenly present on her upper leg. Wanting to let loose a scream, but settling for a sigh, she looked down to find that Sloane was waiting for her. Gazing up at the clock she realized it was just past ten on the Wednesday morning, standing up she chose not to shower and instead headed straight out to the car, climbing in, her eyes still bleary with sleep, she silently cursed the world for putting her through this, her mind telling her that she was being selfish but her heart telling her that the life she was living was ridiculously unfair and worthless.  
  
Parking the car, directly behind the one she knew to be Sloane's, she let her door scrap against his immaculate paint job. Smirking, she stormed through security and into the room where all of their usual meetings were held. There she found Sloane, Marshall and her father waiting for her, each, checking their watches as she walked in. Marshall grinning at her, her father scowled at the world and Sloane looking at her with his analyzing stare as usual.  
  
Ignoring their looks, she didn't take a seat. "I'm taking the week off," she announced, silently hoping to pick a fight just so she could yell.  
  
Sloane raised an eyebrow at her and told her, "You cannot take the day off, yet alone the week, Sydney. We have missions to go to."  
  
She shook her head, "No, you think I have missions to go to, but I don't; I am not going. She turned to walk out, but found the door locked electronically.  
  
"May I ask why?"  
  
Sydney glared at him, acutely aware of the warning looks her father was directing towards her. "Yes, it's because a few days ago I was shot at, chased, attacked and assaulted by men you told me weren't going to be there." She took a breath and continued, "Now that's fine, I understand that my work is dangerous, but to page me the next morning and tell me I can't take the day off because you have more missions for me is....well it's not fair."  
  
Sloane, his fingers clicking together as his voice came out calm and level. "Sydney, life isn't fair."  
  
"I don't care, either you unlock this door and give me the day off or," she pulled a gun from her hip, shocking herself and everyone else, "I'll blow the glass." Sloane's eyes narrowed before he clicked a button below the table. The glass was bullet proof, but he didn't want Sydney letting off shots.  
  
Storming out Sydney re-holstered her gun and began to make her way towards her car. She was almost there when she heard heavy footsteps, hurried and running behind her. Whirling around, ready to attack anyone Sloane had decided to throw at her, 'for her own good' but found her dad, slowing as he approached.  
  
Gruffly, he glared at her, worry and bemusement mirrored in his eyes. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Are you out of your mind? He'll have you killed." Sydney just watched him, her eyes dark with anger.  
  
"He cannot expect me to just ignore my latest near death experience. If he wants me to walk unknowingly into death, then he can give me a day off. Okay?" She opened her car door and climbed in, putting the key into the ignition hole with more force than she needed and for a second she thought she had snapped the key.  
  
"Not really, no." Sydney sighed with exasperation edging her voice and slammed the door shut, missing her father's hand by a couple of millimeters. Revving the car a few times, she looked back and reversed quickly out of the car park, almost causing an accident once she got out onto the roads. Jack just watched after her, vowing to work out what had gotten into his daughter. Turning back, he made his way down to the SD-6 area.  
  
Walking into Sloane's office he was faced with an angered look, "What was wrong with her?"  
  
"I don't know," Jack answered honestly; sure that Sloane would have been watching him via one of the many security cameras. "She must just be having a bad day. I'll get to the bottom of it. If it remains a problem, I'll talk to you." Jack turned and left, not waiting for a response.  
  
Making his way out he walked over to Dixon who was sitting silently at his desk, searching some files for something or other. Bending over he whispered. "Dixon, have you noticed anything...weird about Sydney lately?"  
  
Dixon looked up at him startled, before replying. "She's seemed a little edgy lately. But that's all." He was inclined to ask why, but chose not to when he caught the look of anger in Jack's eyes. As an after thought he added. "You might ask Marshall, he's been spending a lot of time with her."  
  
Jack nodded and turned to walk over to the tech lab. Entering he spotted Marshall and barked. "Marshall," startled, he dropped something made out of glass on his foot, it shattered and he looked at it as though he were about to cry. Sharply, "Marshall, have you noticed anything wrong with Sydney?"  
  
Marshall looked up and shook his head, "No, she's been fine, really good Mr Bristow. She was a bit, sharp with me on Friday, but hey, since then she just sits in the corner and listens while I explain things to her."  
  
Noticing something, Jack questioned, "She just listens? She never asks questions? Never interrupts?"  
  
"No sir." Marshall stammered out, still eyeing wherever it was he had dropped.  
  
Jack nodded and walked briskly out. Marshall collapsed onto the floor and started picking the little pieces of glass up, careful not to touch the liquid that had spilled from inside, knowing full well that if he did he would be paralyzed for a good two days.  
  
Jack stormed into CIA headquarters and, with out knocking, opened the door and stomped into Devlin's office. He looked up from his desk where he had been taking a call and quickly ended the conversation. Looking up he nodded to Jack, "Jack, how can I help you?"  
  
Jack was on a first name basis with Devlin and got straight to the point, knowing that to waist time would be to risk his daughter's cover and life. "Ben, Sydney just told Sloane that she's taking the week off," Devlin made no show of knowing why she might have done this. "Then she proceeded to threaten to shoot the door down if he didn't let her out."  
  
Devlin's brow creased down hard, "I don't know why." He said, "She has not been ordered to do any such thing." He stood up and walked over to the filing cabinet. He had a good idea of why his top agent had been acting so erratically lately, but he wanted to make sure nothing else had happened to upset her. "Sit down," he said as he pulled out a file ten times bigger than any other agent's.  
  
Flicking through, he pulled paper after paper, checking to make sure that there was no significance in the day, the weather, the year to Agent Bristow. Shaking his head, he explained to Jack, "You and I haven't met since it happened; I hadn't thought it would have such a huge effect, but my judgment was wrong."  
  
Jack looked at him, questioningly. "Agent Vaughn organized an emotional back up mission." Jack's mouth dropped open, he'd heard of them and they only occurred once in a blue moon. "He went over and all seemed to go well, but then, we're not sure exactly, something went wrong and your daughter had him reassigned." Jack watched Devlin carefully, not allowing any emotion to show on his face.  
  
"What do you mean, 'had him reassigned'?" Jack knew that Sydney was attached to Vaughn, so why she would have him reassigned raised some unwanted thoughts.  
  
"She just walked into the CIZ building and came in here, sat in that very chair and said. And I quote," he pulled out another piece of paper. "I want a new handler.' I of course asked her why and all she would tell me was that she felt that as she was working so much she needed someone more experienced." He shrugged, "We assigned Claire MacIntire to her and she seems to be doing fine."  
  
Jack nodded. "I'm going to have to find her." He raised an eyebrow in question, silently hoping that Devlin would know what he was thinking.  
  
"You think it's happened again?" Devlin asked. Jack could only nod before turning to the door. As an after thought, Devlin added, "You might want to speak to Agent Vaughn, he's in his usual office doing some research. He wouldn't talk to me, but you might be able to get something out of him." Seeing a look cross Jack's face, Devlin hastened to add, "In legal ways, Jack, we don't know that he did anything wrong."  
  
Jack nodded and left.  
  
Hahaha, read and review, it is the only way to get more! 


	10. Matchmaker, Matchmaker make me a match!

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Ahah! This si the third that I have updated, 8000 words in one night, I'm quite proud considering I started at 8pm. Anyways, read and review and read all my others because they are all just as good as the next as far as I can see. Reviewing is all that keeps me going, I mean that and with four stories and at least 2000 words per chapter, it is rather difficult to find the time.  
  
Chapter Ten  
  
Less than five minutes later, he found himself standing outside Agent Vaughn's office, arm raised, ready to knock. The halls around were relatively silent, no one prepared to risk their life and make a noise when the infamous Agent Bristow was near by. All the doors were closed and everything was CIA standard clean, it made Jack want to be sick as it looked too much like SD-6. Silently, he prayed that he wasn't about to make the biggest mistake in his life as, if he was, it was going to have to be a pretty big blunder to beat all of his past screw ups. Marrying Irina, growing apart from Sydney, enrolling her in Project Christmas, not killing Irina when he had the chance. Looking around, feeling guilty for no real reason, he nocked, once, twice, three times, all in perfect succession, and waited to be called in.  
  
Agent Vaughn's voice came out after a few seconds hesitation, tired and bored. "Come on in." Jack entered without bothering to make sure Vaughn knew it was him and was faced with a messy office, defiantly not up to CIA standards. The place was covered in folders, files and unbound papers all lying on top of a desk, a chair of simply on the floor. Vaughn had his feet up on the desk, his computer on, but a Window's screensaver bouncing around the screen, little stars going in and out of view, and his tie hanging over the back of his chair.  
  
He was reading through a Manila folder, his eyes skimming over the text with a glazed, uncaring look and his fingers playing with the edges. Looking up and realising who it was, Vaughn sighed heavily and slowly removed his feat from the table, dropping the folder onto his keyboard and the screen flicking back onto what he had been reading. "Agent Bristow." Even the name hurt, especially, for some reason, from his mouth.  
  
Jack wasn't totally sure of where to start. He wasn't really the man who should have been doing this and he had had a quick chat to Agent Weiss before coming to Vaughn. "Mr Vaughn." Vaughn simply raised his eyebrows, clearly not interested. "I hear you've been reassigned."  
  
Vaughn nodded and said, "Yeah, I have. So I'd have to ask, sir, what it is I can do for you." Vaughn wasn't exactly being disrespectful, but he was acting tired and without the dedication or ambition he'd processed before.  
  
"It's about Sydney," Jack started.  
  
"I have nothing to do with her." Vaughn cut across him, picking the folder back up and opening it at a random page, his eyes suddenly keen on reading the contents unlike they had been before.  
  
Jack picked up a stack of CIA edition case books, all containing useless information, and placed them on the ground, taking a seat, he watched a moment, before commenting: "Is that what you want?" His voice was flat and lifeless as ever, but his eyes flickering with something else that was important even if Vaughn didn't see it. Vaughn's head shook a little in regret and sadness, but he did not answer. "You never want to see her again?" Nothing to give Jack any clue, and yet he was so sure of what he was seeing. "No? At this rate, you might not"  
  
His head came up quickly and he glared at Jack, a loot of bemusement and dislike mirrored in his green eyes. "What's the point?" The passion was gone, the fire extinguished, nothing was left but a tiny spark in the depths of his emerald pools. His voice was short and in a deep monotone.  
  
"There seems to be no point, Mr Vaughn." Jack breathed in, aware that he was about to break protocol and that while Devlin was backing him off the record, if this went wrong, his would be the head that was chopped. "Except that my daughter has just threatened to put a couple of bullets through one of the walls of SD-6, in front of Sloane."  
  
Vaughn was watching him with greedy interest while still trying to keep his pride. "I don't understand." Jack looked at him and glanced towards the doorway quickly before explaining to him the morning's events. He kindly left out his opinion of Devlin's decision to start an Emotional Back up, but told him everything else, including what he believed Sydney's state of mind to currently be but not why.  
  
After the long and uninterrupted speech, Jack turned to Vaughn and shrugged, waiting for a response, seeing the younger man looking more interested than he had throughout the entire week about anything according to Weiss. "You think I can fix this?" His voice was hesitant, scared of Jack in a way, not sure why he was even letting these kind of thoughts enter Vaughn's mind. Jack simply nodded to him and waited for another question. Vaughn shook his head. "No, hang on. You hate," he emphasised the word and said it again to make sure Jack knew what he was talking about. "I mean you really hate that idea of me even discussing the weather with Sydney and now you're telling me that she needs me?"  
  
Jack looked at him and started to explain what he thought was occurring. "The CIA would call it emotional attachment," Vaughn nodded, his face contorting into disgust and contempt. "Well, it is. When two agents become emotionally attached then it can cloud their judgement, cause deaths and blunders that otherwise would have been avoided."  
  
Vaughn interrupted him, eager to know where this was all going, not sure that what was going on. "I know all this."  
  
"Sometimes it isn't a bad thing," the words were chosen well, so that they couldn't be confused with anything else and the truth not mixed up or twisted. Still, Vaughn looked back at Jack bemused. "Very rarely, the CIA tolerates it because they feel that it's needed." Vaughn shook his head and chuckled at the idea, thinking it a sick joke coming from Jack's morbid sense of humour. "You see, when I was younger, two agents, the best, they became involved, romantically. Eventually got married and had a kid. The CIA tolerated it because they were each other's ambition and their instincts were almost always right. It was a rare case, but endured because it was an improvement for the CIA and the agents."  
  
Vaughn couldn't believe what he was hearing, how could he not have heard of this? Jack explained quickly, seeing what Vaughn was thinking, "If this exception had gotten out and become a well known story, it would have created a precedent and we would have had agents everywhere killing themselves while trying to prove that they could do it, that having a relationship with a person on the inside could work." While Vaughn thought this was an over exaggeration, he didn't say anything. "Therefore no one is told of it, all of the rumours were cleaned up and the books containing anything about them were sealed and classified Omega 17, along with everything else we don't want people sticking their noses into. Even I don't have access to those books. Anyway, no one knows, but I spoke to Devlin."  
  
Jack paused and watched for a response of any kind form Vaughn; he simply raised his eyebrows and joined his hands, threading his fingers together and placed them on the table, leaning forward eager for more hope. Jack shook his head, regretting his next words in advance. "You're one of those rare cases. " Vaughn's face broke into a smile. "I didn't realise it until you were reassigned, but now I do....Without you, Sydney will, I fear be dead within the next few month." Vaughn's smile remained, his mind ticking over visibly at all of the possibilities.  
  
Jack hastened to add, "Now, this doesn't mean you can be careless, it requires more care, more precision than before. It just means that the emotional attachment," Jack still used the phrase, with disgust behind his words, "is allowed and you have permission to take it as far as you wish with CIA knowledge." Immediately an eyebrow rose as Vaughn realised what Jack meant. Jack ignored him, "Now, you therefore need a handler of sorts, someone you report everything," he stressed the word, " to. That will, for the time being, be me."  
  
Vaughn interrupted him. "Are you sure that Sydney will like that idea? I mean being her dad and all. Wouldn't she rather a woman?"  
  
Jack shook his head, not particularly amused on the outside, but Vaughn's words awakening a mixture of amusement and disdain he'd rarely felt and for the briefest second he had a flicker of an image of him handing Sydney over to Vaughn to be wed, inside. Shaking it, he smiled in a sickly way and continued, "At the moment, Agent Vaughn, I'd be more worried about the fact that, for some reason she chose for you to get out of her life. And then," Jack looked at him, expressing the amount of confidence he had, or more lacked, in Vaughn, "I'd try and work out how you plan on getting her back."  
  
Vaughn just stared at Jack for a long time, shock horror written all over him, eventually Jack asked, exasperated, "What?"  
  
"You," Vaughn looked at him, the beginnings of self-assurance edging into his voice, his confidence growing in addressing Jack Bristow, "You always act like this?"  
  
Jack just looked at him as though he was a five year old who was asking a tricky question about Santa Clause for the billionth time. "Do you want my help or not Mr Vaughn?"  
  
Vaughn was inclined to tell him to call him Michael, but decided against it, seeing that Jack's face still looked as cold and emotionless as usual and that there was a chance that he had just imagined everything he had just seen. "Yes of course Sir."  
  
Jack nodded and looked at him, a faint amused smile gracing his lips in private jest for a split second before he wiped it off and spoke again, "Could you tell me exactly what happened?"  
  
Vaughn suddenly looked like he had bitten into rotten fruit, he'd refused to tell Devlin the full story and had been chucked into research for it and now he was faced with a man he wanted to tell even less to. Still, he had little choice in the matter and eventually opted to explain the whole thing, from start to finish, without leaving anything out.  
  
Once he was done, Vaughn just stared at him, waiting for a response, slowly, Jack's eyebrows both raised in shock and he lifted a hand to his face. Clarifying, he asked, "So, she admitted that she loved you?" The words were awkward off his tongue, like a foreign language he hadn't spoken in his life.  
  
"Well, no," Vaughn thought back. "She didn't say 'I love you' if that's what you mean."  
  
"Then there's your problem." Jack explained, slightly embarrassed to be talking about this at all. "Force her to admit it, then go from there. Tell her that you can be together." The entire sentence sounded stupid and so unlike Jack that it took a few seconds for Vaughn to realise what he was expected to do. Thinking it over a while, he eventually stood up and nodded to Jack.  
  
"Do you know where I could find her?" he asked.  
  
Jack felt like rolling his eyes. "Ring her, use whatever code call you used to use, if she doesn't come, tell me and I will go and see her." Vaughn nodded and made to leave. "Use your phone." Jack pointed out and Vaughn returned, sitting down goofily and grinning as he tapped the number in.  
  
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	11. Get Bent Joey!

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Ahah! This si the third that I have updated, 8000 words in one night, I'm quite proud considering I started at 8pm. Anyways, read and review and read all my others because they are all just as good as the next as far as I can see. Reviewing is all that keeps me going, I mean that and with four stories and at least 2000 words per chapter, it is rather difficult to find the time.  
  
Chapter Eleven  
  
Jack watched him as he waited for someone to pick up, he heard his daughter's voice muffled and hard to hear on the other end. She was obviously still upset, answering the phone with a "What is it?" before waiting for a response  
  
Sadly, Vaughn was gob smacked for a moment too long and Jack listened as his daughter sighed loudly and clearly exasperated and hung the phone up. Vaughn could only pull the phone away from his ear and look at it in shock, the image of Sydney threatening to shoot the walls at SD-6 suddenly seeming more and more likely in his mind. Jack's eyebrows raised he looked at Vaughn before leaning over slightly to catch his attention. Looking more impatient by the minute, Jack watched as Vaughn dialled again, Sydney's voice coming out, even more upset. "What?"  
  
Quickly, starting to speak almost before she'd stopped, Vaughn blurted the words out, "Joey's Pizza?" There was a pause, and Jack leaned in closer, thinking that she was speaking and he just couldn't hear her.  
  
This was proven to not be the case when she replied, her voice, low and dangerous. "Get bent."  
  
Hanging up the phone, Vaughn turned in his swivel chair and looked at Jack, his face down turned and discouraged. "I don't think she's going to turn up," he told Jack.  
  
"Hmmmmm." Jack agreed, thinking the situation over as though it were an important CIA mission that had just encountered a hitch. "I'll go and see her." He told him, "The roommate, Francie, she knows everything?" he needed clarification just to be sure he didn't say anything he might regret. Vaughn nodded and he continued, "Good. Be at the warehouse in an hour's time." Vaughn nodded, dumbly and watched as Jack left, almost immediately standing up to start the drive.  
  
Jack pulled up in his government (well that's what SD-6 said anyway) edition car out the front of his daughter's house. He put the break on and turned the car off. Sitting for a while, admiring how nice her house looked, he thought over the loose fitting plan he had devised on the way over. Hopefully it would all work out and Sydney would be back up to full standard by the end of the day.  
  
Stepping out, he walked up the path, looking over Sydney's car which was parked, on a very bad angle, in the drive, its front wheel squashing a bed of flowers. Approaching the front, he nocked on the door of the house. Expecting Sydney to answer, he was somewhat put off when a women he knew briefly to be Francie open the door.  
  
Her mouth dropped a little, showing that Vaughn had indeed told her of Jack's status as a double agent and she quickly looked around behind him. Checking for another agent, bad men, guns, anything and only finding a very nice looking, sleek, black car that she guessed would have cost him quite a bit. Motioning him in, she found her voice and said, "Nice to see you Mr Bristow," though she wasn't sure she meant it. "Come on in."  
  
Francie had been aiming for welcoming and while Jack knew that, her voice appeared a little shocked and he had to smirk. Walking down the hall, he noticed that Sydney had taken down a few pictures and replaced them and had rearranged the furniture in both the hall and the lounge cum kitchen. Smiling at Francie, he waited for her to say something but she just stared at him with a mixture of curiosity and wonderment.  
  
Raising an eyebrow, Jack coughed, loud enough to pull Francie form wherever it was she was and she said, "Take a seat, Sydney's in her bedroom."  
  
Seeing his chance, Jack jumped in, deciding not to sit down, stopping her with a hand and asking her, his voice inquiring and interested, "How is she?"  
  
Francie looked him weirdly for a few moments before trying to answer as best as she could, "She's been pretty upset lately." She paused before continuing, hoping that there wasn't a chance of Jack being able to kill her legally for her comment. "She said you'd be rapt with her decision to have Michael reassigned..." trailing off, she was clearly fishing for an answer and so, Jack gave her one.  
  
"Well, Francie, obviously I'm not. She went into SD-6 this morning and threatened to shoot her way out of the place." Francie's mouth fell open and so Jack continued, "Apparently she went on a mission and she encountered some trouble Sloane hadn't warned her about either because he didn't know or because he's an evil megalomaniac that doesn't care." Francie nodded, showing that she'd heard this story while her eyes widened at the words he used to describe Sloane. "She asked for the week off," Jack continued, "and Sloane refused. So she told him to let her leave of she would shoot the glass door out."  
  
"You're serious?" Francie asked, Jack again felt his patience wanning.  
  
"Yes, she's in a lot of trouble over it and I think that it can be fixed if she's allowed to become...emotionally involved with Agent Vaughn." Francie laughed at the phrase but Jack ignored her. "I've had it passed, unofficially, and the CIA is making an exception."  
  
Francie smiled, her whole face beaming, "Good, I thought the rule was pretty crap to begin with...so what?" Jack looked at her with a dull look.  
  
"We have to convince her to go and meet Agent Vaughn." Francie stared at him. "Now."  
  
"What do you mean 'we'?" Francie was obviously feeling as though she was about to become caught up in a mission and she was both excited and scared of the idea.  
  
Seeing this, Jack explained, "I just need you to come upstairs with me and try to help," he pushed the word, "Me to convince Sydney that she should go to the warehouse and meet Agent Vaughn." Francie nodded and turned towards the hall that led to Sydney's bedroom.  
  
Shaking his head, Jack followed her down the corridor, again noticing that some of the pictures had changed and stopped behind the young woman outside a door. Turning to face him, she looked unsure of herself and raised her eyebrows to make sure that Jack knew what he was doing. Nodding, Jack reached past her and nocked hard on the door.  
  
Inside, Sydney recognised the nock as being foreign and not Francie's or Will's and repositioned herself on the bed so that it appeared as though she was reading over some Literature books from school. Of course, she hadn't been, she'd been staring, angrily at the ceiling, every now and then throwing a pencil with as much force as she could handle, up at the roof. Glancing up, she saw there were still a couple of dozen up there, each ready to fall at any moment.  
  
For a second, she thought about quickly pulling them all down, but hearing the knock again, she couldn't be bothered and spoke loud enough for them to hear, "What is it?"  
  
Hearing Sydney's voice still with tension and some anger in it, Jack opened the door and walked in behind Francie. Sydney looked up form her book and her eyes went round with shock. Startled, she quickly sat up properly, crossing her legs and balancing near the end of her bed, "Dad?" the word was both an exclamation and a question in one.  
  
Nodding, he said, "Sydney." Looking to Francie, he continued quickly, "I hope you don't mind: Francie let me in."  
  
Francie glared at him, looking slightly upset that he might have been setting her up for trouble with Sydney later on in the day. Sydney just smiled, Jack watching a mask fall into place easily, "That's fine. What is it you wanted?"  
  
For a moment, Jack felt a pang of guilt that his daughter believed that he'd need a reason to visit her, and then, realising it was true, he looked down. Turning his voice to something more authoritive, Jack explained, somewhat in a gruff manner, "I was just wondering what caused your little outburst in front of Sloane this morning..."  
  
Sydney raised an eyebrow and moved so that she felt more comfortable. Thinking quickly, she answered, "He has no right to make me stay there, I deserved the week off."  
  
Cutting across her, Jack retorted, "You're right, you do deserve the week off, possibly a couple of decades, but nothing like that matters. I'm surprised you're not dead already," his words were harsh and cutting, but underneath Sydney sensed the concern that he was really feeling. "I have to wonder why you did it. You've been in the same position many times before and never acted that irrationally..." he trailed off, waiting for an answer.  
  
Sydney stared at him before turning to Francie and asking, "You think that I acted irrationally?"  
  
Francie just looked from Jack to Sydney and then back again. She shrugged, weakly before commenting, "I can see why you'd be upset, but," she looked at Jack, trying to work out what to say. "But, I think that something must have set you off."  
  
Sydney sighed and jack watched her as her temper flared in her eyes. "Also," he quickly interjected when he saw her about to speak, "I'd like to know why you broke CIA protocol." For a moment, Sydney thought that her dad had somehow found out about the whole fiasco between her and Vaughn. She had hoped that when he found out that he had been reassigned he would just take it as a blessing and leave it be, but... Her thoughts were cut off when Jack started again, "When an agent calls you, asking you to meet him or her, it's is your responsibility to do so."  
  
Sydney only had a few seconds to ponder how her father had found out so quickly before she felt his hand on her arm, gentle, but forcing at the same time. "Devlin sent me to take you to the warehouse." A small lie, but not likely to be found out, Jack decided.  
  
Sydney scowled her face turning into that of a young child refused something and with all the power in the world to change the future. She remained, unmoving, on the bed for a few moments before conceding and standing to follow her dad out to the car. Francie followed them, her eyes full of interest but her mind too scared to say anything.  
  
Turning at the door, Jack told Francie, "Stay here," and while she felt as diminished as a five year old, she obeyed and went to sit on the sofa. Picking up a magazine, she watched over the top of it until they had exited her line of site. Snuggling into the sofa, she turned the magazine over so that everything was up the right way and started to read it half- heartedly, the seconds taking hours to tick over on the clock.  
  
Walking out the front door, Jack stalked in the direction of his car, unlocking it via a little black button on his key chain; he walked around to the other side. Seeing that Sydney was heading for her own car he called her over, "Ride with me." It was almost a question as though he was leaving it up to her, but she read it as a demand and made her way over to the car without argument, slipping into the passenger seat and doing her seat belt up with angry smoothness.  
  
Vaughn sat in his car parked just outside the warehouse, debating what to do now. He looked at his watch and saw that Jack hadn't wanted him there for another ten minutes. Undoing his belt, he climbed out and walked in through the little back door that the CIA had put in just for him. Listening to his feet as they clicked against the floor each step he took, he wandered into the cage that they usually used and took a seat, putting his feet up on the table and admiring the glittering dust that lay over everything, little slivers of dust filled air being lit up by the midday sun.  
  
Looking about him, he searched for something to do, finding nothing he sat down to wait but almost instantly heard a car pulling up outside. Startled, he removed his feat and self coconsciously fixing the suit he was wearing, noticing that he'd left his tie in the office and his top buttons were undone.  
  
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	12. EXhandler!

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Ahah! This is the second that I have updated, 8000 words in one day, I'm quite proud considering I started late. Anyways, read and review and read all my others because they are all just as good as the next as far as I can see. Reviewing is all that keeps me going, I mean that and with four stories and at least 2000 words per chapter, it is rather difficult to find the time, but with so many reviews, I'll manage.  
  
Chapter 12  
  
Stepping out of the car, Sydney slammed the door and waited, somewhat impatiently, for her father to join her. Quietly, she tried desperately to compose herself, or at least to keep the anger on top strong enough to fool Vaughn into believing. Obviously she wasn't fooling her father.  
  
Jack got out the car and looked around; he saw only one other car, which he knew to be Vaughn's and nothing out of place. Satisfied that they weren't being watched and hadn't been followed, he looked at Sydney for a moment before putting his head down and heading for the looming warehouse. Sydney followed; her pair of sneakers tapping lightly on the cement and with her head held high and her shoulders pushed back, Jack noticed this and couldn't help but smirk at the façade she was hopelessly trying to put up, that he was effortlessly seeing through.  
  
Vaughn heard the two pairs of footsteps, one a little further back than the other, and bit his lip, waiting for Sydney to turn the corner and meet him. Expecting the worst, Vaughn was prepared for any words she might choose to throw at him and, if it came to an all out fight, he was ready to run for his life, his keys waiting in the ignition and his shoes not slippery. Taking a deep breath, he listened as the footsteps came closer and closer until they were just around the corner. Then they stopped and the only sounds were trucks on the freeway and a few birds that had chosen to live in the warehouse's roof.  
  
Vaughn's brow immediately creased and he listened harder, wondering what on earth had caused them to pause. Hushed voices reached his ears, Jack's and Sydney's, but he couldn't understand what they were saying, only a word or a phrase here and there.  
  
Around the corner, Sydney had stopped abruptly, Jack, after almost walking into the back of her, lifted his head and asked her, rather impatiently, "Why have we stopped, Sydney?"  
  
She looked at him for a moment, her face angry but her eyes sad and hopeless. "What does Agent Vaughn want with me?"  
  
Jack had wondered why she hadn't asked him this in the car, and now, while he was just around the corner, she had chosen to query. Looking about, trying to estimate how much he would hear, Jack answered, his voice low and whispered. "How the hell should I know?" It was a lie, but again, only a small one and it was needed as otherwise he would have had to say something mushy like 'he just wants you' or 'just to be with you' and that wasn't something he wanted to do.  
  
Typically, Sydney didn't just accept his answer, but chose not to push him, instead beginning, very quietly, to ramble away. "You know he's not my handler anymore? What could he possibly want, I mean, everything is supposed to go through Claire, not him? I'm supposed to never see him again."  
  
Jack was inclined to cover her mouth with his hand just to shut her up but he stopped himself before he could do it, deeming the action too personal and uncontrolled, instead deciding to simply shake his head and interrupt, "Sydney, I don't know. Just go and see him."  
  
Sydney's eyebrow rose in a combination of shock and amusement, her father's voice was all of a sudden encouraging and forceful but in a sweet way. Nodding, Sydney took her time, looking down at the old tracksuit she was wearing, navy blue pants with a white tank top covered partially by a navy blue top. Her hair hadn't been properly brushed since she'd woken up and in fell haphazardly down her shoulders and back. Sighing, she knew that this was it and began walking again, her sneakers dragging more as she approached the corner.  
  
Not expecting anything, she looked to her father and smiled a little when he nodded and gave her a push forward with his eyes. She turned the corner and there he was, sitting on his normal chair, legs crossed and without the normal tie.  
  
"Not my handler," Sydney's voice, "possibly," "through Claire," "never see him again," still Sydney's voice. "I don't know," Jack's voice now, "Go and see him." Vaughn's forehead creased as he tried to piece it together. Giving up almost straight away, he was brought back to reality as movement caught the corner of his eye.  
  
She walked in, a hesitance in her step, wearing a tracksuit. Vaughn wanted to look her over, it being the first time in over a week, but, stopping himself, letting his eyes remain on her face which, a moment after she'd seen him, contorted back to a look of frustration, impatience and anger.  
  
The top buttons of his shirt were undone, and Sydney was quick to notice this, keeping her eyes on Vaughn she took in his clothing, black suit pants and his blue top, badly creased and without a tie. She leaned against the fence, right beside the exit and watched as Vaughn looked at her, his eyes remaining on her face.  
  
Jack walked in through the gate and stalked to the other end, leaning against the fence, he'd positioned himself so that he was no where near the pair and had no way of interrupting their locked eyes. He stood there, unmoving for a few minutes as he waited for something to happen.  
  
Vaughn and Sydney had been staring at each for a little bit too long and it was Sydney who first recovered, keeping the anger in place and turning her back on him and moving to the other fence, as far as she could get away. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her father's head drop as Jack realised that he was going to be stuck there for a long time.  
  
Vaughn looked overly upset at Sydney's decision to turn away and before anyone had the chance to stop him, he said, "Why'd you have me reassigned Sydney?"  
  
The question had been answered before, but Vaughn still wasn't happy with the crap Sydney had thrown at him regarding emotional attachment and protocol. Standing up, he walked over to stand behind her, she had her back to him, but still, instinctively, he saw all her muscles tighten as he came near. Jack just continued to watch from his place behind them.  
  
Sensing him so close, Sydney tried one more time lamely to throw him off, to make him leave, she simply put the reason to him, just as she had been telling herself ever since he'd left. "Staying together we were breaking protocol, we were emotionally attached and I chose to have you reassigned because I felt that it was something I needed to do for my country."  
  
She still hadn't turned around and Vaughn's eyes were clearly focused on her back so neither of them saw Jack sigh and raise an eyebrow before silently grabbing a vacant chair and taking a seat. Sydney waited for Vaughn to back away, waiting for him to say something either in agreement or rebuttal, but he just stood there, hardly breathing and not making a sound, waiting for her to make the next move.  
  
It was a stalemate of sorts, there was nothing left for her to say and he was intent on not moving an inch until she spoke. Jack had no intention of saying anything until it was absolutely necessary and even then only if he thought he could say it without revealing too much and without appearing mushy, knowing full well he would never live it down.  
  
Sydney's muscles eventually began to hurt, her arms overly straight by her sides and her legs and back stiff and leaning slightly forward to avoid any contact with her ex-handler. Eventually Vaughn gave up and took a half-step back, watching Sydney relax and letting his breath return to normal, "Serving your country?"  
  
Sydney turned, not letting Vaughn look in her eyes but nodding defiantly.  
  
"Serving your country involves blowing your cover at SD-6?" Sydney went to interrupt, throwing a look of shock at her father and wondering how Vaughn had gotten the information so quickly. Raising his voice, Vaughn continued, his voice sounding strong and bold but inside he was thinking about how stupid he must have looking. "You think serving your country includes getting yourself killed? In a situation when you should have even been in any danger?"  
  
Sydney looked at him, taken back and slightly intrigued at the way he was handling this. "What does any of this have to do with you?" Her voice was flat and well disguised, Jack was the only one that noticed that it was fake, much like his and he realised with some sadness that his daughter truly was growing up to be him.  
  
Vaughn looked at her for a moment, her flat, emotionless voice, scaring him for a second, but glancing at Jack and gaining a nod, he continued, "I'm your handler."  
  
She interrupted him, unseeingly playing into a trap, "Ex-handler, so I don't have to tell you anything." She looked ready to leave, but Vaughn gave her a look that somehow brought memories into her head of the last time she'd tried to run from him here and she stayed, sighing and leaning against the fence again.  
  
Smiling a little, "I'm your ex-handler and that's your fault, I had nothing to do with it." Jack felt a smirk spreading over his face and he quickly raised a hand to cover it.  
  
Sydney looked over at her father and glared, knowing he was hiding a smile under his hand, before turning back to Vaughn, calming down, she tried again. "Look, Vaughn, I'm very sorry it didn't work out, but this is it. My handler is Claire and you are just a person I have never met and never will meet. I'm sorry."  
  
Vaughn looked at her; anger, melancholy and scepticism massing in his eyes and mind like a silent storm ready to break loose as he watched her move towards the doorway, his feet plastered to the spot where he was standing, unable to go and stop her, to tell her, her sneakers the only noise as they echoed on the concrete. Vaughn held his breath wishing he could move; that he could stop her but finding himself paralysed on the spot.  
  
Sydney got to the gate and looked back at him, one last time, no tears, no emotions, no feelings, no nothing, just a face without warmth, a face without passion and a face without reason. Jack recognised the face as one he commonly saw in the mirror and so watched with horror as his daughter turned and began to walk out of Agent Vaughn's life forever, for the second time.  
  
Reviews please, they are my reason for getting up in the morning. Honestly, I hope you keeping reviewing so well and so much, it's just great, I got up this morning and there were quite a few in my inbox, so thank you and keep it up and you never know how many more days of four updates I'll manage!!! *wink wink nudge nudge* Remember, keep reviewing, I'll keep updating this quickly. 


	13. Screw Protocal

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Hmmm...well I dunno  
  
Chapter Thirteen  
  
Moving quickly, Jack ran after her, reaching her after she'd taken but only two hesitant steps backwards. Jack grabbed her from behind, forcing her forward, leaning in he whispered to her, shocking Sydney with his decision to stop her and what he said, "Listen to what he has to say." She still made no move to stay, but she didn't push past him and leave either. Trying again, Jack said, "Please, stay or you'll regret it for the rest of your life.  
  
It was so unlike him to say anything like that that Sydney lost her anger for a minute and just turned to him, wondering for the first just how much her father knew and how much he had told Vaughn.  
  
Vaughn, watched, still paralyzed to the spot in the middle of the room as Sydney's face fell, a moment's shock for her father's words which Vaughn had heard and then fear, sadness, defeat, longing and a mixture of other emotions that he didn't want her to ever feel.  
  
Seeing that Vaughn had seen what she truly was thinking, Sydney found herself with two choices. Firstly she could floor her dad, who was still blocking her way out, and just run, perhaps to another country or at least another state, leaving all of her past behind her and just hope she could deal with it. Or she could stay, see what he had to say though she knew it would make little or no difference, the reality that they could never truly be together too well known and accepted and thus unable to be compromised.  
  
Turning, she decided not to floor her father, and took a seat. She looked up at Vaughn who just watched her with a doubtful look and a shyness she hadn't seen about him since their very first meeting. "Well?" she sounded defeated and it pained Vaughn, but, telling himself that she was better off defeated and listening than victorious and out the door, he pushed on.  
  
Vaughn shook his head and took the remaining seat, slumping into it and never losing eye contact with the woman who sat, at least two meters away, her head hanging but her eyes slightly interested in what he had to say.  
  
Jack just walked back in; placing himself just inside the fence, knowing there was a chance that Sydney would try to run once Vaughn said something out of place. Looking gruff, trying to make up for the softness he'd shown with his little speech to Sydney, he leaned back and settled down to listen.  
  
Sydney waited patiently for him to speak and as the seconds ticked by, seeming to take hours, she felt the hair on the back of her neck standing up as though something was about to happen. She always had this feeling before a mission, before a big fight with Will or Francie, before going out with Danny, even before he'd proposed. It was like a pre- adrenaline rush and it told her to expect something any moment, but still Vaughn struggled to come up with the right words.  
  
Jack felt like rolling his eyes, he'd gotten Sydney back in the room, he'd gotten her to sit down and listen, and now Vaughn had forgotten what he was supposed to say, still he just waited, along with everyone else, for someone to speak, to move.  
  
"Well," Vaughn's voice came out stronger than he felt and passionate, in control while inside he was melting into a little puddle of slush. "I know that you think this can't work," straight away, she interrupted.  
  
"I don't think it, it's a fact, I know it," for a moment, she thought about getting her father to back her up, but decided not to, seeing Vaughn grinning as he grabbed control, obviously she'd made a mistake and he was about to point it out. Looking back over her words, she couldn't find what it was she had done wrong.  
  
"What if it wasn't a fact?" Sydney looked at him confused and asked him what he meant, her voice incredulous. "Well, let's just pretend that it could all work. That we could be handler and agent and be together." Sydney looked at her father for a moment, not taking any notice of what he was doing; just a little embarrassed to be having this conversation in front of him.  
  
Jack quickly covered up the grin he'd been giving when Sydney's eyes slid to his and while he hadn't thought it was a good cover up, she just looked at him weakly before turning back to face Vaughn, looking at him with a mixture of bemusement and misery. "What do you mean? We couldn't. You know that." For a moment, she wondered whether he'd gone insane, but looking at him and seeing no sign of insanity, she continued to wonder where he was leading her with his questions.  
  
"Well, what if we could?" She still looked at him without an expression he wanted to see. He paused a second, gathering his thoughts, "You'd want that wouldn't you?" Before she could stop herself, she was nodding a small sigh escaping her lips as once again her mind reminded her heart that he was talking rubbish. Vaughn smiled, "Right, so nothing would stand in our way then?"  
  
She looked at him, exasperated and still confused, "Vaughn, you're forgetting a few small things!" He grinned, knowing that if he could just get her to listen he might be able to hold on to her forever. "I mean, first of all protocol," she paused for a minute, waiting for her dad to come in and back her up but he didn't, only shrugging when she looked his way. "Secondly, it ups the chances of me being killed and you were right; that isn't a way of serving my country." She waited, wanting desperately for Jack to come in and help her out as none of this was hitting Vaughn at all, by the looks of him, it was only increasing his high hopes and the smirk he was wearing.  
  
"Thirdly, if the CIA finds out we'll both be fired and last, but not least, if SD-6 finds out we'll both be dead." He just grinned, knowing that to explain he was going to have to play with her, to make her want to listen to what he had to say and not just blurt it all out at once, but slow and explaining it so that she understood. "Dead, Vaughn, does that mean nothing to you?"  
  
Thinking hard, Vaughn decided to try to kill each of her reasons not to, and then give her reasons why it was a good idea and then hope to hell Jack would help him when it came to explaining that they were an exception. Taking a deep breath he started with her last point, "Syd, us being involved would make no difference to SD-6, they'd kill both of us either way if they knew who we were." She glared at him, knowing he was right.  
  
"As for the CIA firing us, I can handle that," she looked at him inquisitively, knowing there was more to that answer, but that he wasn't ready to explain, not yet. Still, she didn't speak and waited for him to continued, "I don't think it ups the chances of you being killed," she was ready to interrupt but his voice ran over the top of hers, growing with his confidence as he found more and more ways to beat her. "And don't try and argue with me on this one, because I know for a fact that when we were working together you never would have been so stupid to threaten Sloane. But, not, without me," he threw the 'without me' in, just for fun and got a scowl from Jack for it, which only made him repeat it, "With out me, you decide to go and shoot his walls down."  
  
She glared at him, knowing he was winning and while that was all good considering she wanted him to be right, it still meant she was being beaten. She sat up a little, eager to hear more of his rant, "And as for protocol, well..." he looked at Jack, knowing exactly what he wanted to say, but a little scared of Jack shooting him on the spot for it. Summoning up his courage, he let it out, "Screw protocol, it's wrong. How many times would you be dead if we ran by the rules?"  
  
Sydney knew he was right, she'd probably be dead five times over along with Vaughn and her dad, but she didn't say it, seeing that he knew he was right without her backing him up. She watched her father for a second, seeing him smiling a little behind the scowl he was trying to direct, quite unsuccessfully at Vaughn.  
  
"I mean it," he continued, quite happy with where his speech was going, "We'd all be dead, the CIA would have about half the Rambaldi stuff they have now and we'd still be miles from taking SD-6 down," Sydney's brow creased as she realised he was right. "So why do you want to listen to it only when it comes to us?" His voice was quieter, almost whispered, Jack totally forgotten stood in the corner, watching with battered breath. "When it comes to me and you?"  
  
Sydney swallowed, "I don't know. But it does and until you can somehow get it past the CIA that we can go off and have any kind of relationship we want. Well, I'm keeping my new handler." She couldn't believe she was saying this, still throwing him away, sure in her heart that if she did anything wrong by the CIA there'd be hell to pay and at that very moment in her life, taking down SD-6 was top priority.  
  
Looking up, Sydney was thrown into confusion when she found Vaughn grinning at her, eyebrow raised as though he knew something she didn't and desperately wanted to all her, but wasn't sure how to. "What?" she asked.  
  
"I'll tell you if you promise not to interrupt and not to freak," it was like some huge piece of gossip and Jack found himself rolling his eyes and looking at his watch, realising that he'd been standing there for over forty five minutes. Sydney nodded, glancing at her dad to realise he was in on whatever Vaughn was talking about. "Okay," he took a deep breath and began.  
  
"Um...okay, sometimes, the CIA lets agents be together," wow, Vaughn played it back and it sounded horrible, quickly he started again, "I didn't know until a few hours ago, but once or twice they deem a couple to be better for the organisation than worse and they encourage the relationship." Vaughn looked to Jack, trying to see what he was thinking but only meeting with a small smirk and unreadable eyes.  
  
"So, you see, it's sort of not that bad." It was the lamest speech he'd ever made, the oral he'd done when he was fourteen in sex education had been less awkward. He looked at her as she just continued to look confused and slightly upset. He tried to work out what she wasn't getting and, looking back over his words, he understood that she might have no idea at all regarding what he was talking about.  
  
"Hang on," she thought for a moment, her voice high and unconvinced, "You're going to try to get the CIA to let us have a relationship." She watched him, the idea that he might have had too much to drink or hit his head really hard the night before creeping into her mind.  
  
"No," he was quick to correct," Unofficially, we can do whatever we want," catching a glare from Jack, Vaughn retraced, "I mean, as long as it's okay with you." She grinned, but then her face returned to looking perplexed.  
  
Speaking slowly and with question and hope in every word she asked him, "You mean they're going to just let us have whatever relationship we want, off the record?" He nodded and she smiled, still not quite convinced, turning to her father, waiting for him to say something, anything.  
  
Seeing her watching him, Jack wondered what it was she wanted him to say, but, having no idea, he just said the first thing that came to mind.  
  
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	14. Never do it again

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: I went out today and saw Lord of the Rings and that was an 8 hour thing what with lunch and shopping and tomorrow I have to be up at 5 to go fishing, so be very impressed that I am up at 11pm writing the notes for ALL FOUR STORIES! But hey I love it and I love it because I love all of the reviews I get. I was upset this morning because there were none there, but that was cause the site broke, but when I got back from the movies, there were heaps, so thank you, I love them and look how hard they make me work. Be warned, none of these have been proofed because I'm way too tired, so any major problems, I apologise in advance. Enjoy them and if you don't know how to get more you're obviously brain dead: reviews!!!!  
  
Chapter Fourteen  
  
Jack nodded first, trying to see if that would do, if that was all he needed to sacrifice but she just continued to look at Jack, confused and unsure. Vaughn too was looking at him, hope and an urgency in his eyes. Trying again, Jack reinforced the nod, "Basically, yes."  
  
It was at this moment that the thought struck Vaughn that he might not pull this off, he'd picked his words so carefully, scared of it coming out wrong and it had still sounded so stupid to his ears and probably hers, so what if Jack didn't fix it, what if Jack ruined it more. Vaughn rarely thought of his future, quite happy to live in the moment, his life full as it was, but when he did there was always mention of Sydney, always.  
  
But what if there wasn't, what if she'd turned and left and he couldn't find her ever again. Would he be able to live like that? It wasn't a question he wanted to face again; Can I live without Sydney Bristow? Sure, every time she went on a mission he was stuck at home, lying in bed, sleepless and asking the same question over and over again. If he walked into work the next day and there was no more Sydney, what the hell would he do?  
  
This was different again; he was stuffed if she left. 'I love her', he thought to himself. It was simple, the thought pure and easy, but a first. Every other time he'd avoided it and said attracted or liked or something else, but just then, when everything was so precious, so volatile, so crucial, he thought it and the realization made him scared and sure and hopeful all at once.  
  
Sydney shook her head slightly, snapping Vaughn from his thoughts, she was opening and shutting her mouth, unsure of what she was expected to do and still completely unaware of what this all meant. Vaughn's voice traveled over to her as though she was in a dream, "Sydney..." She didn't answer him, still waiting for her dad to explain, hoping he could make it all clear.  
  
"Um," it was the first um in Jack's adult life and he hated it, "Look, Sydney," Sydney just looked at him, shocked out of her mind, possibly because two of the leading men in her life were acting so totally wrong. "I know this is hard to accept, but he's telling the truth, there are...exceptions."  
  
She cut him off, "And we're one of them?" Jack nodded, thinking she had finally got it and turned to leave, the situation all too wrong for him. "And you back this?"  
  
He looked at her, shocked by the question. He looked at Vaughn, and saw fear enter his eyes again. He wasn't sure how to answer this one, either way there was going to be a follow up question and either way he was going to end up in trouble, either with Vaughn, not that this scared him, or with anyone heard he'd given them the green light. Shrugging, he'd aimed for indifferent, "Hey, I don't mind. If you want to go, go."  
  
Sydney's face became a severe look of incredulity. "After all of this, you're going to say you don't mind?" He nodded, slowly, not sure what was about to happen. Sydney faltered for a moment, knowing if she pushed this she might throw it all away. Why not settle for half now and not risk losing all to gain all? She didn't need her father's blessing, didn't need to know that what they were doing was right. She just wanted it because she knew without it she could never be sure she was being careful, doing her best and not just hiding behind an unofficial stuff up where the CIA had thought that starting a relationship might have been the right thing but had later changed their minds and not had the balls to say so.  
  
Should she push him? Make sure she had it all worked out, had everything down pat? Or just settle for half of everything when there was a possibility of having a whole? Loosing Vaughn or having him fro real, they were her two choices and neither looked better than the other until she imagined trying to hide it.  
  
What if the CIA decided it was wrong and her father had always known but she hadn't made him say so right now? The relationship would end and they would be back to where they were now but with perhaps years of hurt built up between them and no where left to go and with that thought, she realized that she no longer had this huge choice, she realized that she hadn't to ask him, to push her father into saying what he thought, whether it was a yes or a no, she hadn't to know.  
  
"But, you must have had a hand in setting this up..." he just looked at her, knowing he had made a huge mistake. "Hmmm?" she looked at Vaughn who nodded, "Wanting to just get on with it and give him an answer. "So what? You're just going to leave now? Because I swear if you leave now, I'm going to walk out with you because if you think it's wrong, I'm going to trust you over the CIA."  
  
For a minute, Vaughn thought she was joking, but then he realized that she wasn't and he quickly looked at Jack, knowing that all he had to do to make his daughter happy was say, 'I think it's a good idea,' but positive he wouldn't say it. Jack's eyes flickered to Vaughn's as he obviously went through his options.  
  
He could say nothing walk out and ruin his daughter's life, he could give them both his blessing and risk the downfall of his reputation or he could...well, that was it. No matter what, one thing was going to end up ruined. His reputation or Sydney. She stared at him and memories started coming back in a rush.  
  
She had been three years old when it happened; she'd fallen over while he'd had her in the park. He'd been rung by his senior and had answered the phone, stupidly; he'd also turned his back on her, the action normal for him. When he'd turned back, hanging up the phone she was twenty meters away, in the centre of the park, blood gushing from her knee and whimpers escaping her lips.  
  
From that day forward, whenever he was with her alone, he'd kept his phone off. He'd seen the damage he could do with neglect and hadn't bothered to risk it again.  
  
At her fourth birthday, he'd rushed out of the house at six am, not to return for a week from a mission in France. He remembered kissing his wife at the door before rushing off, her angry cries behind him, a tear running down her cheek and then the guilt the entire time he was on the mission, much of it, just sitting around in cars, watching fat French rich men with a woman on each arm walk in and out of their houses. Someone else could have gone on that mission, he hadn't been ordered, it had been an offer, for an extra credential and a little extra money. And he'd taken it.  
  
When he'd gotten home she'd been in her room, sitting on her bed, the new cover still smelling fresh and foreign in the room. She hadn't cried, hadn't yelled at him, she had acted maturely and it was only when he turned his back that the tiny, four year old Sydney broke down and cried, Jack returning to hold her in her arms for the next hour until she had managed to cry herself to sleep.  
  
That was the last time he ran out on a mission without asking her first. He'd seen that he could hurt her and hadn't tried it again, the guilt and anguish being enough to last a life time the first time around.  
  
And then he's lied to her. Of course there were such lies as Santa Clause, magic and faeries, but when he started lying to her, at first about his work and his safety and when he was coming home and then, when she grew older, about her mother, about SD-6 and about his entire life. And then, in less than a few months, everything had come out and it had hurt both of them. Too much and he had decided to never lie to her again. And he hadn't if she asked, he told her the truth, whether this meatn telling her she wasn't allowed to know or avoiding questions, he wouldn't lie.  
  
And then there were more things, stupid things he'd done only once but once too many times. That he had learnt from but that he had always wished he had learnt the rules before he committed the crime. Now, looking at Sydney, her face stone and her eyes icy while at the same time full or warmth and hope, the emotion only a tiny spark, waiting for him to light it and add the fuel.  
  
Pursing his lips, he scratched his head. "Sydney," she looked at him, hopefully, "I think that." He stopped himself and started again, "This is totally unofficial and I'll deny it if you ever bring it up," she grinned at him, thinking that Jack was kidding, but seeing the serious look, she smothered her laughter and listened carefully. "I started this whole idea, you act irrationally when your handler isn't around, we all know that thanks to this afternoon's performance, and your instinct in better than mine when his life is at stake. I mean, look at France, at going after the antidote at the millions of things you've done wring but done them so well."  
  
He paused and looked around, trying to base everything on facts in the hope that no one would read into this words as them being sentiment. "So I went and looked into it and Devlin backed me up, unofficially," he quickly added, "Agent Vaughn aggress with me," Vaughn dipped his head as he felt both Jack's and Sydney's eyes sweep to him, but Sydney's vision quickly returned to Jack as he continued.  
  
"And I haven't changed my mind. If you think it's best, which you do," he reinforced it with a strong stare, "Then I believe that a relationship," this was where it became awkward, "Between you and Agent Vaughn would perhaps be beneficial to your work with the CIA and SD-6"  
  
He breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Vaughn who nodded at him, thanking him and then, without daring to look at his daughter, Jack spoke, "Now, I have to go and I remind you, this is unofficial and not to be let out of this room."  
  
Sydney watched him leave with high hopes but a closed off face. "Is he serious?" She asked Vaughn who was still watching her, worried that Jack's speech hadn't worked as well as he had at first thought.  
  
"Yes," it was a quick answer and certain. "Of course he is. So am I."  
  
It was sappy, Sydney and Vaughn both saw it for a fluffy little add on, but if almost forced the stony look from her face, one last question to ask before she could grin at him. "So...  
  
Well, okay, I went out and came home and my back hurts and my neck hurts and my fingers and I haven't watched TV in days, argggg, But I love it so review please. 


	15. Terribly good

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Dear God, you're going to like this, well you know up to my usual cliff hanger ending...hehehe...well, it gets me reviews. Enjoy it, because I think it's going to be my second last for this one. And if you think it's rated wrong, tell me and I will fix it. Personally it's nothing more than you'd usually see on Alias if the writer would get their heads on right. Hmmmm...I'm giving the story away, Read it and review it for the final chapter. Oh and all those who doubted my happy ending here it comes!  
  
Chapter Fifteen  
  
She watched him carefully, wanting to see if he was as sure as she thought he was. He just watched her, tiny little lines etched into his forehead as he awaited what might or might not be a good thing, she opened her mouth again, but shut it, still not positive that he was as serious as he was making out.  
  
But then she realised that he must have been, going to all this trouble, the rumours that he had been a wreck since she left, getting her father to help of all people and then how he had been with her for these last few years. Always by her side, only questioning where he thought it was needed and always helping, no matter what might happen. Risking his life for her and what she believed in. He was doing it for her or he was doing it for the CIA and she knew it wasn't going to have been for the CIA.  
  
Smiling, weakly, the look of indifference was kept as she slowly said; her voice smooth and with a tinge of amusement and happiness, "Are you busy tonight?"  
  
God that smile made her weak at the knees, she let everything flood her face as he broke into a shocked, relieved, ecstatic expression that wiped what she had thought permanent lines of worry from his forehead. He grinned, she had had no idea he was so worried she'd still refuse that when she'd uttered what was definitely a good thing, he hadn't been able to keep anything hidden, and now, looking over her, he saw that it was the same with her.  
  
Her face changed in the blink of an eye from what he had surmised was aloofness to what he could only read as being a exotic mix of amusement, happiness and something else, something he knew was mirrored in his eyes, but something he couldn't put his finger on.  
  
Smiling, he answer, "What if I am," the words, still playful came easily as he found himself sure of the future of his relationship with Sydney.  
  
She looked at him from across the room, still too dumbstruck to move, "You are then?" He nodded and she had to wonder what he was playing at. She was, personally, shocked that he didn't have her up against the wall, his lips on hers. She was also a little miffed that this had happened. "What are you doing then?"  
  
He grinned again; she knew she was never going to get tired of that smile, those lips, his face. "I'm going out," her face flew to confusion but as she listened, it returned to happiness, her smile all the more large. "With the most beautiful, intelligent, incredible, passionate girl on the planet."  
  
She felt her face turning red, no one had ever said anything like that so sincerely to her in her life. Did he really like her that much? She smiled at him and asked, "What's her name?"  
  
"Sydney Bristow," he grinned and started to walk slowly across the room. She saw him coming and walked back into the fence, grabbing it with her hands and holding on tight as she recalled what it felt like to kiss Michael Vaughn. He eyes were wide as he moved in for the kill; she was biting her lower lip seconds before he stopped in front of her.  
  
He took a breath, as he smelt her, breathing deeply, unable to stop himself as he smelt the unique fragrance, a little sweat, perfume of some sort, old from the day before, her shampoo, rich and like the beach at midnight. He grinned, dipping his head to catch her eyes, he raised an eyebrow.  
  
Sydney just stared at him, wonderment on her face as she looked up at him and saw him for who he was. When she'd first met him she hadn't really liked him, she thought he was young and they had always fought far too often. She actually remembered sitting in the car, speeding on the way to their meetings, rehearsing her latest idea for a speech in her head. She remembered one in particular:  
  
"Don't know what your problem is with me. Maybe it's that I'm a woman, or maybe you just don't like my attitude, or something, and I'm sorry about that. But I really don't feel like wasting time here. Three's only one way we can immobilize SD-6, and that's MY way. So, forgive me for being forthright or... female, but this is how it's gonna be."  
  
She watched him, still looking at her, his eyes glinting and she grinned, she recalled most of their conversations, the way that you remember important instances. Their relationship was different; it as had always been difficult and it had always been passionate. Perhaps these were the early signs that there was attraction, she grinned again and listened as he asked, a hand moving to her elbow, "What are you thinking about?"  
  
"Us," god that word was a good one, Sydney wondered who had invented it and pondered if they had realised what a great word they had just come up with. She grinned at him harder; feeling like her face would split should she find anything to smile even more about.  
  
He smiled before an odd look of shyness and embarrassment appeared on his face, "Do you really want to be thinking right now?" His voice was low and quiet, like he wasn't quite sure of what he was saying.  
  
Sydney just raised her eyebrows, her reminisces forgotten as she realised what he was asking, what could have been playful was all the more attractive as she become conscious that he was so insecure about initiating any kind of action. She held back the urge to kiss him just for being so cute and answered, playfully, "Why Vaughn, what would you rather I do?"  
  
He just looked at her, shocked at how forward she was being and felt his mouth twitch up into a grin, "I could think of a few things." They could both feel the heat from each other's bodies radiating at them in waves, Vaughn could have sworn he was having visions of her pressed against him, but knew she wasn't touching him at all.  
  
Sydney saw him warming to the playful banter that was oh so badly seductive while also sweet and proof of their newly and totally unofficial, by all accounts, relationship. She wanted to touch him, hopelessly but knew to just grab him would be to give in. Smiling, in what she prayed was a seductive way; she grabbed his hand and felt the heat straight away. She pulled it up to hold it close to her eyes and trickle her fingers over the brown skin. "Oh? What kind of things?"  
  
Vaughn felt like someone was holding a match to his hand, her nails were gentle but when the skin hit him it was like an addictive type of fire. He knew she was playing with him, enjoying herself, trying desperately not to kiss him, not to fall into his arms, he could see it in her eyes. He grinned, looking at her and allowing her to turn his hand over to tickle his palm, her fingers still fire to him.  
  
He must have shocked her when his lips found the top of her ear. He'd moved his head slowly, making sure she couldn't see what he was doing and hoping she as concentrating hard enough on his hand to not see him inching closer to her, his breath held in so as not to raise the alarm. And then he'd moved in that last centimetre and let his lips trail smoothly down to the lobe, starting at the top and completing the journey agonisingly to both, little by little. Her fingers had stopped moving and she was just holding onto his hand, silently thankful for the fence, sure she would have fallen had it not been there for support.  
  
Seeing her slumped against the fence, his hands moved, on accord of their own will, to her hips, stopping there with softness and hardly even touching her.  
  
Vaughn grinned, the motion of his lips moving felt against her hair and ear, and whispered, so quietly, so smoothly, so in time with the air, it mightn't have actually been heard had his mouth not been so close to her ear. "We could do this..." he trailed off, his mouth sucking gently on her earlobe, the milky skin of her neck, revealed as she turned her head to it's side, her eyes fluttering closed, scared at how good he was at this.  
  
Then his lips were gone and she was ready to regain her composure, the immense effect his mouth had on her dropping away along with his touch. She sighed and opened her mouth, quickly shutting it as she felt a moan rising as his lips returned, this time to the spot just behind her ear where her jaw joined her skull. Soft at first, just tiny kisses, like butterflies landing and then taking off before landing again. Her eyes shut again and she to bite her lip to stop another rising moan. He was, terribly, wonderfully good at this.  
  
His next kiss was closer, as though he was being pushed closer and she could tell he was smiling, she opened her eyes a moment, intent of working out why but shut them on the realisation. She wriggled her fingers to confirm, finding them surrounded by hair, his hair. For a moment she was ready to pull her hand out and try to grab the lost limb, but then she decided there was no way on earth she could do it and felt had fingers moving again, involuntarily, as though they had a life of their own.  
  
Vaughn smiled as he felt her hand in his hair, propelling his to kiss her neck deeper and silently wondered to himself how much longer he would be able to keep this up without her subtle touches killing him. Still he persevered, whispering again, "Or this? We could do this, if you like..." Out of the corner he saw her nodding limply, possibly against her own will and smiled, laying slightly deeper kisses down her neck, letting his tongue rage a fire down the silk like skin.  
  
Still, he got no response other than the heat she giving off, which, though he though it was, he couldn't be positive, was about two hundred degrees higher than it should have been. Knowing this must have been affecting her, Vaughn continued, the work definitely a good job, but still horribly bittersweet, what with her lips so close by.  
  
He kissed across the muscle at that led from her neck to her shoulder, letting each tiny kiss differ, to be unique. Some were just his lips, pressing down gently, another included a playful lick to her skin, its heat double what his lips alone gave of. The next kiss, he scraped his teeth over her for a second, the muscles shivering on its own. He grinned and repeated the series of seductive movements until he found himself with a blue jacket to contend with. Underneath he knew there was a white tank top, probably only centimetre wide strips but the jacket had to go if this was going to work.  
  
Continuing to work closer and closer to the material, his hands left her hips and landed on her arms.  
  
Unable to hold back a second longer, Sydney let a deep moan escape from her throat as the man of her dreams reacher the hollow of her neck, a little gap where she knew her skin was sensitive that lay in front of her muscles and beside her shoulder and throat. He nuzzled it, causing a tiny shiver that he must have felt to run through Sydney's body, starting at her toes and ending with, she believed, the tips of her hair.  
  
Vaughn kissed the bone that bordered the hollow off and spoke again, "If you wanted, we could try this. You only have to ask." And then he was gone, he took a step back and stood there, inside slowly disintegrating but on the outside, beaming at her, waiting for her to pull him back in or ask him something else seductive.  
  
Damn, that was evil, I'm sorry, but it edged over 2000 words quicker than expected. Reviews will have to be plentiful to get the last chapter so if you read this and want some more, please, just one word, two...anything, just so I know tat this is read and not just left sitting. The last two days have been hard because I haven't gotten much as Fanfiction.net has been close to dead so please review! Thank you to everyone who has. I think I will update everything today, I am not sure though, defiantly No gift and probably the other two, so hang around. 


	16. The Car

Title: Wish List  
  
Author: Donna donna__rose@hotmail.com  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine, if you think they are you are obviously either insane or a very dumb lawyer.  
  
Summary: Syd wishes, Vaughn delivers, a happy ending. I dunno, read it and then you can write my summary for me.  
  
Notes: Special thank you to Samantha for proofing this. It's all over, this is it unless you want an epilogue? I've loved writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Please review my ending and tell me if you want the epilogue, it won't have Syd or Vaughn, it'll be a conversation between Jack and Irina. Anyways, yes thank you for reviewing and I hope you like it.  
  
Chapter Sixteen  
  
Both of them were short of breath, both of them were looking deeply into the others eyes, but neither made a move. Vaughn had been sure he'd done enough, that when he moved back, she would just fall into his arms and that would be that but Sydney was still holding on, by a finger, trying to force her body to act as a dead weight and just stood there, hoping he came to her within the second because she was sure as hell she couldn't hold on for any longer.  
  
Vaughn just stared at her, grabbing at the ground with his feet, listening to his own breathing and the beating he swore he could hear coming from his chest. He swallowed; he could see her falling apart and would have felt bad if he hadn't already known how much better this was going to be now that he had played with her for a few minutes. He watched her, eyes narrowing as he saw her eyes sliding away from his, for a moment he thought she'd found a way out and he panicked but then he saw her eyes trailing over his own body and he automatically felt himself blush.  
  
He would have been embarrassed except that when she looked up and saw him looking so red, so flustered, she opened her mouth to speak, "Vaughn," it was uttered, whispered, shaky and proof she was about to fall.  
  
He took his chance, regaining composure with confidence and shook his head. "No," he paused watching her falling further, her eyes wide as she heard him, but then he finished his sentence, the effect electric, "Call me Michael."  
  
And that was the end of her, damn him for it, but that was it, three little words and she was gone, over the edge, under the water, into the fire, whatever, she gave up for the first time and she was happy to. She fell into him before dragging him backwards as she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life, into the fence, looking him in the eyes, but still keeping her dignity and not letting him kiss her right away.  
  
Vaughn just grinned at her, her sudden movements catching him off guard and now he found himself held roughly right in front of her, and she was smiling at him, not kissing him, just beaming as her eyes grabbed his and she looked at him. She was still stalling so he soon had his hands on her hips, not snaked around her, not yet; he decided to save that for later.  
  
Sydney knew exactly what she wanted; she wanted two things in a specific order. The second was Vaughn and the first was something easy, something simple to give but difficult to find. Something innocent and quick but that lasted a lifetime, and she wanted it now, she wanted it before Vaughn. Her eyes narrowed, asking him with her mind, half hoping that he would be able to understand but still shocked when he did.  
  
Vaughn looked her over, wondering how to do this, wanting her to remember for ever, knowing this was important to her as it was to him and eventually he just decided to say it, simple, sweet and with so much meaning. He swallowed, and smiled, looking, it appeared, to be a tad nervous. "Sydney," he began, his voice smooth and low but becoming higher with realisation at just how badly he meant it, "I love you."  
  
Dear god, he was going to kill her, he was perfect in that moment, somehow he reminded her of a poet and she was propelled to just kiss him, but something stopped her, wanting her to think before acting and soon enough she was grinning at him again, his face still bright with joy. "Vaughn," his expression changed to mock anger and she grinned, "Michael." It was a wonderful name, she knew it was a wonderful name, always had, but right now both of them thought it was brilliant. She smiled again and held his gaze, "I love you too."  
  
And then it was over, they'd said it and Sydney had only one thing left to obtain and he was standing right in front of her, ready to be taken. So she tightened her arms, forcing his head closer and down until she could feel his hot breath on her neck. She became serious and leaned in, feeling him move towards her at the same time. And then their lips met, softly at first, just pressed together for what felt like the first time.  
  
But then, Vaughn let his hands wind around her waist and pulled her to him, one hand resting on the small of her back, the other going up to hr neck where it proceeded to push her lips harder against his until they opened and the kiss became all the more passionate as their tongues duelled silently, Sydney eventually breaking the kiss as she began to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen. They grinned at each other, the entire situation coming at them as they realised just what had happened, just how free they were all of a sudden and how good it felt.  
  
The kiss had been for both electric, tiny impulses that ran through their bodies gathering and making them feel hot and naturally high. It wasn't long before they were moving back in, oxygen levels back up and energy doubled. They kissed again and again, Vaughn finally unravelling his arms and cradling her cheeks with them, looking deeply into her eyes as she just breathed heavily, still smiling like an idiot but not caring.  
  
"Now what?" Sydney asked, Vaughn just grinned, his hands returning to her waist, shrugging as he leaned in and kissed along her jaw line. Sydney smiled and let her body fall back against the fence. She sighed, not holding back as his lips travelled back down her neck and along the hollow to the blue top, a hand left her waist and landed on her shoulder. He kissed her, exaggerating it with a long lick that felt good and made her giggle at the same time.  
  
She could feel him pulling the sleeve down her arm until the top was dangling from one arm, the other totally exposed. She looked over and saw him nibbling, quite affectionately, on her shoulder, she closed her eyes and moaned, the sound music to his ears and his lips departed from her skin. She opened her eyes, looked dismayed until the other hand reached around to hold her own hand up in the air. She looked at him, questioningly for a moment and he answered by gently holding the hand to his mouth.  
  
His lips skimmed over the knuckles before turning back and laying kisses at the base of each finger. It felt better than she ever could have imagined, he was so tender and precise that each time his lips made contact it was an entirely new and better experience. He was soon kissing his way up her arm, back to her shoulder where he stopped, resting his chin there and looking at her carefully.  
  
She looked at him, amused at the expression that her eyes met with; it was so unlike what she'd expected of him as it reminded her of a puppy, desperate for a pat. She just grinned as he stopped there and leaned the inch to where she could easily kiss his lips, not passionately this time, just in a nice, subtle way. She leaned back out, continuing to face him, but moving her head back on her neck as his lips, so close was too much of a temptation.  
  
"We can't stay here forever..." it was a sad little sentence as she realised it was still going to have to be a relationship had only in a dusty warehouse.  
  
Vaughn just smiled at her, shaking his head, the day old stubble catching at her skin and tickling it. "Hypothetically, I'm still allowed over to your house. Neither Devlin nor your father ever said anything about me not being allowed back over," he smiled suggestively.  
  
Sydney just pushed him off her shoulder playfully, "Separate cars?" He nodded and pulled out a mobile, she grinned remembering how the entire fiasco had begun, "Mobile again?"  
  
He nodded, grinning that grin that made her melt. "I'll call you," he turned and made for the exit, a new sparkle in his eyes and an extra bounce in his step. Vaughn made his way out to his car and got in, He waited a moment, perfectly happy with the events of the day and looked out at the view. It wasn't great, but it showed the city below and while it was sort of foggy, dog crap would have looked good to him just then. He turned the key in the ignition and was ready to drive off when eh saw Sydney running out waving her hands around and laughing at herself.  
  
He turned the engine off and stuck his head out the window, "What?" His voice was cheerful but confused.  
  
She stopped at the car, not tired at all from her short run and explained, "I just remembered, dad drove me here so I can't get home." Vaughn looked around, questioningly, and saw no car.  
  
"Doesn't it seem a little weird that he didn't think of the fact that now we're stuck here?" Vaughn sounded confused, knowing that Jack would have thought of this and then his cell rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, looking at Sydney, slightly freaked out. "Vaughn."  
  
Sydney couldn't help herself and grinned as she whispered, "Michael," under her breath. She listened carefully, moving her head into his car and putting her ear as close to the phone as she could get.  
  
She heard her father's voice, "It's Jack here, Agent Vaughn, Sydney can catch a ride home in your car, the roads have been staked out and there's no way that you can be seen together without me knowing when, where and by whom. Get Sydney to direct you straight home, no back roads." He paused, and Vaughn would hear him taking a breath, about to say something, but then the line went dead.  
  
He just looked at Sydney, who had obviously heard most of the conversation as well. He grinned and told her, "Come on then, get in."  
  
She smiled and walked around to the other door, she climbed in and sat down, doing up her seat belt and admiring the tidiness of the car until she turned around and found the floor littered with papers and the odd coke can. "Nice car," she commented as Vaughn started it up again and drove out of the quadrangle.  
  
He kept his eyes on the road, but answered her, "Yeah, I know. Thank you Central Intelligence Agency." For a minute Sydney thought he meant the car, but then she realised he meant something else entirely.  
  
Okay, well, that's it, basically. Sad to see it go. But hey, means I can start another one now. One last question, please review, just to tell me whether you liked the ending and also I'm thinking of a one chapter epilogue, no Sydney or Vaughn but Jack going and having a talk to Irina. It's totally up to you, if you rather I left it here, I would, but if you want me to explain how exactly Jack organised everything and see a little conversation between him and his wife, tell me now and I'll have it up in a couple of days. I'd like to thank every single person who reviewed, it meant a lot to me, kept me going, and I can't wait to see what you all though of the ending. So read, review, go read my others. 


	17. Epilogue: A chat

Epilogue:  
  
Jack watched them as they drove off, sad smile upon his face. His car was parked in the shadows about twenty meters behind him and his hand was at his side, mobile phone clasped there as he hit the end button. He turned and got into his car, waiting a few minutes to be sure that they'd left and wouldn't see him pulling out behind them. Once he was satisfied, he started the car and began to drive. Initially, he'd planned to go home and spend the night going over paper work, but the pair of hands on the steering wheel had other ideas. Twenty minutes after he'd turned out of the quadrangle, he pulled up a street away from where he knew his wife was being held.  
  
He got out of the car, too proud to just go home, he had to tell her, it was only fair and he wanted to make sure he'd been right. Only once before had he gone to her, admitting he was there to pick her brain and here he was again, walking down the street, quite briskly, despite the fact he'd promised himself he wouldn't make it a habit. Jack ran through he motions as they came to him like second nature, dropping the coin, the security camera, all until he was inside, a large CIA security man waiting for him, his hand out in welcome.  
  
Jack nodded and grasped it firmly, giving a small, obviously forced smile. "Jack Bristow," he told him.  
  
The guard nodded, "Simon Allens, I'm new here. Do you have clearance?" Jack looked at him, slightly incredulous to the idea that he couldn't know who e was but not showing it.  
  
"Yes, check it through with Devlin if you want," the man looked him up and down, taking in the suit and shook his head, waving a hand to let him through; pushing the button on the side of the wall that would open the two doors to get him in. For a moment, Jack contemplated whether or not he should explain to this new Allens guy how stupid it was to just let a man through like that, for all he knew, Jack could have been Sark and that would have been the end of everything.  
  
But he didn't, knowing if he did, he'd lessen his chance of getting anywhere near Irina. He just walked through, first one door, hearing it slide shut behind him and then on to the next, he hit the red button and entered as the door slide open. On the other side he was in the room, divided only by perfectly clean glass with Irina. She was sitting on her bed, legs crossed and looking, as usual, immaculate and content, neither of which she should have been. It was off putting, but he ignored it, waiting for her to acknowledge him. After a few minutes she did, turning and looking at him, unfolding her legs and letting them hang over the side of the bed and her brow creased low in puzzlement.  
  
He was ready to speak but she got in first, "To what do I owe the pleasure," he glared at her before trying to adopt a look of impartiality.  
  
"I wanted to talk to you," an eyebrow rose, "I saw no one else fit to speak to so I came here." Suddenly it sounded very stupid and for a second he thought about leaving.  
  
"What about," her voice was serious but cautious for some unknown reason. He looked at her across the room and through the glass, trying to see how seriously she would take this.  
  
"The CIA has decided to allow Sydney and Agent Vaughn to have a relationship." It was the most simple and impartial way he could put it but that didn't stop her eyes from lighting up.  
  
"Like the Robert-Ergo case?" He scowled at her.  
  
"How did you know about that?" he asked, already knowing the answer.  
  
She smiled a little, "You told me."  
  
"Humph," he stared at her, still holding back on emotion. He waited for her to say something but she refused to, remaining silent until he chose to speak. "They've unofficially been given clearance, Devlin told me himself this morning." Seemed like decades ago, but it had in truth only been early that day.  
  
Irina grinned at him, slyly, "You organised this then?"  
  
For a moment his glare returned but then he realised that if he wanted her opinion he would have to tell her the truth or leave empty handed. Once again he used the lame excuse that there was little she could do no matter what he told her as she was stuck in here. "Yes, I did," she raised an eyebrow and signalled for him to go on, "Agent Vaughn."  
  
She interrupted, "You know you should probably start calling him Michael, I'm sure Sydney has," she ran her teeth over her bottom lip as she smiled at him. She shrugged and waited for him to go on.  
  
"Agent," she shook her head, "Michael," he growled out, "Organised a emotional back up operation." Irina raised an eyebrow," Which I wasn't aware of. He stuffed it up, tried to kiss her as far as I can tell." He shrugged, the ideas of love not something he came here to discuss, especially with her.  
  
"So what? She rejected him?" Irina sounded puzzled, obviously there was something she knew that she'd neglected to tell him.  
  
He held back the flood of questions building up and answered hers, "Yes, basically, that's exactly what she did. Left and then got him reassigned." Jack just looked at her, the look on his face plainly saying he had no idea why she'd done it so Irina just nodded. "Anyways, she almost got herself killed and Devlin and I decided it would be best to let them have a go. So now it's allowed," she still made no move to speak and the slight pause was uncomfortable, "So..."  
  
Irina looked at him, "What?"  
  
He glared at her, seeing she was enjoying herself, he bit his lip, "What would you have done?" What he really wanted to ask was 'Do you think I did the right thing?' but that was too personal somehow. He waited patiently ass he watched him from her bed, mulling over what he'd told her, wondering what all of this meant. She looked up and shrugged as if to say she was indecisive over the issue. Jack just cocked his head to the side in frustration, "Nothing?" no answer. "You don't have anything to add?"  
  
She looked at him, hesitating before speaking, a move he hadn't seen her ever do, "I'm not sure. I suppose it probably is for the better," his brow creased, this was not the reaction he'd expected or hoped for. "Well, I can't say I know either of them very well, so I don't know why you expected me to help." And that's when he saw it, the tiny glint in her eye that told him she was playing with him, god knew why, but she was and he hated it.  
  
He stood up, "Irina, this is serious, stop screwing around." He stared at her, going for a genuine plea for honesty and looking lie he was simply mad, "Did I or did I not make the right decision?" Damn, he'd asked her exactly what he hadn't wanted to ask. She was good at manipulating people but not usually him and here had had fallen under her trap. Still he waited for an answer.  
  
She sat on her bed, hands in her lap and her eyes narrowed, watching him, wondering just how to answer his question, "I think you did." His glare turned to a scowl and then confusion as he registered that her answer was sincere. She went on, voice level but still apprehensive as though she knew her words were a danger to herself, that they were too personal, she had to tread carefully. "This Agent Vaughn, Michael," she smiled lightly, "He's a good man, loyal, honest, works hard, everything she deserves and he loves her." She took a sharp breath, her voice suddenly becoming mangled, "Despite the fact that he thinks her mother killed his father."  
  
Jack watched her, eyes still narrowed as she appeared to show emotion, he took in every word, rolling it around his mind, looking to see what and why she was doing this. He found no answer but continued to listen, her insight worth more than he'd ever let her know. "Sydney loves him too, despite what you think, she does." Irina stood up; she could see the inner turmoil Jack was having to hide from her. His mind warring against his heart as he tried to work out not only if he had been right about Sydney and Vaughn but also as he tried to make sense of the woman behind the glass.  
  
Irina stopped about a meter back, eyes level with his as her brow creased low. "Jack," no teasing in her voice as there usually was, but then, that only made it harder for him, "I think that you did the right thing." And then she turned and was looking the other way. Jack couldn't\fathom why, but she had turned her back to him and he could see that she had a hand up to her face, all he didn't know was why?  
  
Her answer had been from the heart, she knew it and she doubted Jack would ever realise that she meant it but there was no way of forcing him to see that she was finally being serious. Inside she chastised herself for being so stupid, for following in the footsteps of the boy who cried wolf and now look at her, she was crying. Nothing tremendous, she was too well trained to sob or weep but she could never stop those few tears and she had to face away from him.  
  
"Irina," his voice was too soft and she was turning around to find out why before she had time to run a hand over her face again. She had rid herself of the two that had fallen, but had there been a third. By the look on his face there had been. He looked utterly shocked but kept himself composed, his voice the only thing indicating change, "Thank you." It was a formality, at least, he told himself it was a formality, but they both knew it wasn't.  
  
Irina smiled, only a little at him before bringing a hand up over her face and through her hair, she sighed and shook her head slightly, "No, Jack, thank you."  
  
Well, that's absolutely it. All done, wallah, have fun with it. Make of it what you will, um thank you all. 


End file.
